Suzy Matthijssen

• Doctor of Psychology
• Utrecht University

Background: Psychotherapeutic interventions aimed at treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adolescents and young adults are hampered by high dropout rates. Looking at the results from adult treatments, short, intensive, outpatient treatment programmes may offer a promising alternative, but it has yet to be tested in this young population...

Background: Limited research has addressed the efficacy of remote intensive trauma-focused treatment programmes. Objective: This study aims to assess the effectiveness of a remote intensive treatment programme in reducing symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), general psychiatric symptoms, symptoms of depression, and the interference of...

Introduction: Research has shown that combining different evidence-based PTSD treatments for patients with PTSD in an intensive inpatient format seems to be a promising approach to enhance efficiency and reduce generally high dropout rates. Objective: To assess the effectiveness of an intensive six-day outpatient trauma-focused treatment for patien...

Introduction Short and intensive trauma treatment programs seem promising in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, little is known about the effects performing these types of intensive treatment programs online. Method At the Altrecht Academic Anxiety Centre, an in person intensive trauma focused treatment of six days (three con...

Introduction Visual Schema Displacement Therapy (VSDT) is a novel approach showing promise in mitigating distressing memories, akin to Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). Objectives This study aimed to determine the safety, feasibility, and effectiveness of VSDT in individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), comparing...

Background Several widely studied therapies have proven to be effective in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, there is still room for improvement because not all patients benefit from trauma-focused treatments. Improvements in the treatment of PTSD can be achieved by investigating ways to enhance existing therapies, su...

Background: Group schema therapy (GST) is increasingly popular as a treatment for personality disorders (PDs), including Cluster-C PDs. Individual ST has proven to be effective for Cluster-C PD patients, while the evidence for GST is limited. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of GST for Cluster-C PD. Moreover, differ- ences between...

La thérapie de désensibilisation et de retraitement par les mouvements oculaires (EMDR) est considérée comme un traitement fondé sur des données probantes pour le traitement du trouble stress post-traumatique (TSPT) chez l’adulte, mais il y a des différences dans la façon dont les diverses directives internationales de traitement jugent la solidité...

Background Exposure-based therapy is the treatment of choice for anxiety disorders, but many patients do not benefit sufficiently from it. Distressing images of threat related to the future or past may maintain the anxiety symptomatology or impede exposure therapy. An intervention that targets threat-related imagery is eye movement desensitization...

Introduction: The Flash technique is a novel intervention aimed at rapidly decreasing the subjective disturbance of an aversive memory, thereby serving as a potential way of treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The protocol is used to stimulate clients to engage in positive imagery while being discouraged to actively recollect the target...

Background: Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a treatment meant to reduce vividness and emotionality of distressing memories. There is accumulating evidence that working memory taxation is the core of the working mechanism of EMDR therapy and that EMDR derives its effect by taxing the working memory (WM) with a dual ta...

It is useful to investigate factors that could predict treatment outcomes for PTSD. The current study aims to investigate the relationship between daily measured PTSD symptoms during an intensive six-day treatment program and overall post-treatment outcomes. The treatment program combines eye movement desensitization with reprocessing and prolonged...

Background Early identification of patients with an anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in need of highly specialized care could facilitate the selection of the optimal initial treatment in these patients. This paper describes the development and psychometric evaluation of the Decision Too...

Background Trauma-focused treatments (TFTs) have demonstrated efficacy at decreasing depressive symptoms in individuals with PTSD. This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the effectiveness of TFTs for individuals with depression as their primary concern. Methods A systematic search was conducted for RCTs published before October 2019 in...

Background: Visual Schema Displacement Therapy (VSDT) is a novel therapy for the treatment of fears and trauma-related mental health problems including PTSD. VSDT proved to be effective in reducing emotionality of aversive memories in healthy individuals in two previous randomized controlled trials and outperformed both a non-active control conditi...

While eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is considered an evidence-based treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults, there are differences as to how various international treatment guidelines judge the strength of this evidence base. Furthermore, in areas other than adult PTSD, major guidelines differ even more a...

Complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) is a diagnostic entity that will be included in the forthcoming edition of the International Classification of Diseases , 11th Revision ( ICD-11 ). It denotes a severe form of PTSD, comprising not only the symptom clusters of PTSD ( Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , Fourth Edition...

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy targets emotionally disturbing visual memories of traumatic life events, and may be deployed as an efficacious treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder. A key element of EMDR therapy is recalling an emotionally disturbing visual memory while simultaneously performing a dual task. Previ...

Objective: The aim of this study is to gain more insight in the differential contributions of anxiety, depression and Obsessive-Compulsive (OC) symptom severity to Quality of Life (QoL) and tic severity in adults with Tourette Disorder (TD). Methods: Self-reported OC symptom, anxiety and depression severity measures were used to investigate thei...

Background. Patients with generalized social anxiety disorder (SAD) avoid various social situations and can be reluctant to engage in in vivo exposure therapy. Highly personalized practicing can be required before patients are ready to perform in vivo exposure. Virtual reality based therapy could be beneficial for this group. Aims. To assess the fe...

Both auditory and visual emotional memories can be made less emotional by loading working memory (WM) during memory recall. Taxing WM during recall can be modality specific (giving an auditory [visuospatial] load during recall of an auditory [visual] memory) or cross modal (an auditory load during visual recall or vice versa). We tested whether mod...

Background and objectives: Visual Schema Displacement Therapy (VSDT) is a novel therapy which has been described as a treatment for stress and dysfunction caused by a traumatic event. Although its developers claim this therapy is quicker and more beneficial than other forms of trauma therapy, its effectiveness has not been tested. Methods: We co...

Introduction: Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an evidence-based treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A key element of this therapy is simultaneously recalling an emotionally disturbing memory and performing a dual task that loads working memory. Memories targeted with this therapy are mainly visual, t...

Onderzoek toont aan dat oogbewegingen, zoals die worden gemaakt in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapie, visuele herinneringsbeelden minder emotioneel beladen kunnen maken. Of oogbewegingen ook een effect hebben op (positief) verbaal materiaal is nog onbekend, maar ook daarop wordt deze interventie wel toegepast in behandel...

Background: According to the working memory (WM) theory of eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR), dual tasks that tax WM during memory recall reduce image vividness and emotionality of memory during future recalls when no dual task is carried out. There is some evidence that WM taxing also reduces vividness and emotionality of audit...

According to working memory theory, a task that taxes working memory during simultaneous focus on a memory will tend to reduce memory vividness and emotional intensity. Results have been found for both negative and positive memories. Some studies have shown the necessity of modality-specific tasks, with visual tasks producing greater deterioration...

Introduction. December the 26th 2004 a massive undersea earthquake northwest of Sumatra, Indonesia, with a Richter-scale magnitude of 9.3, caused a giant shockwave or tsunami that devastated the shorelines of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and many other countries (van Griensven et al., 2006). Thousands of people from all over the world wer...