The Tapping Evidence Base
PTSD & Trauma · Anxiety

The Effectiveness of Emotional Release Technique (EFT) in Reducing Anxiety in Patients with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Alamdar, B.A., Mohammadtehrani, H., Behboodi, M., Kiamanesh, A. · Journal of Applied Family Therapy (jarcp) · 2021

Randomized trial👥 30 participants⚖️ vs. waitlist/no treatment (pretest-posttest-follow-up design)Moderate rigor✓ Source-checked📍 Iran
In plain English. Thirty men hospitalized with post-traumatic stress disorder in Iran were split into a tapping group and a comparison group. The tapping group's anxiety — both in-the-moment and as an ongoing trait — dropped by a real margin, and the improvement was still there two months later. It's a small, single-hospital sample, so it's best read as an encouraging early result in a severely affected inpatient population.

What they found

30
people took part

30 male psychiatric inpatients with PTSD (15 EFT, 15 control) showed significantly greater reductions in state anxiety (F=14.23, p=0.008) and trait anxiety (F=3.07, p=0.031) following EFT, with gains maintained at a 2-month follow-up.

How the study worked

Who took partMale inpatients diagnosed with PTSD at Kerman Nourieh Psychiatric Hospital, Iran (n=30)
What they didIn a randomized controlled trial, participants were randomly assigned to receive tapping or a comparison condition, then measured and compared.
Compared withwaitlist/no treatment (pretest-posttest-follow-up design)
Measured withSpielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory

💡 Where this could help

Think of a psychiatric inpatient whose trauma symptoms are severe enough to require hospitalization, in a system with limited resources for extended individual therapy. If this early result holds up in larger samples, it points toward tapping as a fast-acting, self-taught option — one patients can keep using alone after discharge — for exactly the most acutely affected patients, where every low-cost tool matters.

🔬 What to study next

In a population sick enough to require hospitalization, the interesting next step is pairing the anxiety scales with objective markers already used on psychiatric wards — cortisol, blood pressure, or actigraphy-tracked sleep — to see whether the reported relief shows up physiologically too. It would also be worth testing whether nursing staff can be trained to reinforce the technique between formal sessions, and whether booster sessions extend the gains seen at the 2-month follow-up.

The full record

DesignRandomized trial
Participants30 people
PopulationMale inpatients diagnosed with PTSD at Kerman Nourieh Psychiatric Hospital, Iran
Comparison groupwaitlist/no treatment (pretest-posttest-follow-up design)
Outcome measuresSpielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory
JournalJournal of Applied Family Therapy (jarcp)
Year2021
CountryIran
LanguagePersian
MethodEFT / tapping
Publication typeStudy / trial
Verification✓ Confirmed against the primary source

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Alamdar, B.A., Mohammadtehrani, H., Behboodi, M., & Kiamanesh, A. (2021). The Effectiveness of Emotional Release Technique (EFT) in Reducing Anxiety in Patients with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Journal of Applied Family Therapy (jarcp). https://doi.org/10.52547/jarcp.3.2.14

This record is part of the Tapping Evidence Base — an openly-sourced, fully-referenced directory of the research on EFT/tapping. Explore more studies on PTSD & Trauma · Anxiety

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THE TAPPING EVIDENCE BASE PTSD & Trauma 30 participants WHAT THEY FOUND 30 male psychiatric inpatients with PTSD (15EFT, 15 control) showed significantlygreater reductions in state… Randomized trial · 30 participants Alamdar · 2021 · evidence.thetappingsolution.com