Research Brief. A randomized controlled trial published June 21, 2026 in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health tested two trauma-focused treatments for refugee minors. The KIEM study compared Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy (EMDR), Narrative Exposure Therapy for Children (KIDNET, a child-adapted form of Narrative Exposure Therapy), and a waitlist control group.

Participants were 96 refugee children and adolescents ages 8 to 18 in the Netherlands, each accompanied by a caregiver and meeting criteria for a full or partial post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis. Each group had 32 participants. Both treatments ran for 8 weekly sessions plus 1 to 4 parental guidance sessions. After 8 weeks, waitlist participants were re-randomized to one of the two treatments. Follow-ups came at 1 and 3 months after treatment. The trial is open access.

The trial is significant because it adds direct comparative data for refugee children and adolescents with PTSD, a population often underrepresented in trauma-treatment research.

Both EMDR and KIDNET reduced clinician-rated PTSD symptom severity compared with the waitlist, with large effect sizes reported for each: EMDR d = 1.31 and KIDNET d = 0.94. Child-report measures showed a similar pattern; caregiver-report measures did not.

On secondary outcomes, including quality of life and emotional and behavioral symptoms, EMDR showed significant effects versus waitlist while KIDNET did not, at small to moderate effect sizes.

In the direct comparison, EMDR showed a greater reduction than KIDNET on clinician-rated PTSD severity across the follow-up window (d = -0.38), with no significant differences on the other measures. Results were reached after an average of 6.61 sessions for EMDR and 9.10 sessions for KIDNET. Reported dropout was 20.8 percent for EMDR and 10.9 percent for KIDNET.

This is one small trial at one set of sites. The publisher describes the available version as an unedited early-access manuscript prior to final publication. Two authors reported income from EMDR or (KID)NET training. The trial does not settle how refugee youth should be treated, and its head-to-head result is one finding within a small sample rather than a general ranking of the two therapies.

For more source-led study coverage, visit Research Watch.

Selected Sources

• Velu, M. E., de Roos, C., van der Aa, N., Jongedijk, R., Lindauer, R., & Mooren, T. (2026). Trauma-focused treatments for refugee children and adolescents with PTSD: a three-arm randomized controlled trial comparing the efficacy of EMDR and KIDNET versus a waitlist control group (the KIEM study). Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health.
• Publisher article page: Springer Nature / BioMed Central article page.