Treatment of psychological injury after a scuba-diving fatality

Abstract

After the death of a student during an ocean scuba training dive, the student's diving instructor was suffering from Acute Stress Disorder, a post-traumatic stress reaction. The treatment of the instructor's distress using a combination of two recognized trauma therapies: Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT) is described. Improvement was noted after four treatment sessions. The instructor reported further improvement at a two-month follow-up and the positive effects were maintained nineteen months later

Click here to link to the full text of the Journal article (downloadable as a PDF file)