Six-Month Follow-Up Comparing AIT and EFT in the Reduction of Negative Emotions Associated with a Past Memory

Randomized trial👥 51 participants⚖️ vs. Advanced Integrative Therapy (AIT)Moderate rigor✓ Source-checked📍 United States

In plain English. Seventy-two students originally randomized to either tapping (EFT) or a related technique called Advanced Integrative Therapy for a distressing memory were followed up six months later, and 51 responded. Both groups had kept their distress scores low and roughly equivalent to each other, meaning whichever technique someone got, the relief from that one memory held up half a year on. Because there's no untreated comparison group at follow-up, this shows the two techniques perform about the same as each other long-term, not that either beats doing nothing.

What they found

people took part

At six-month follow-up of a trial originally randomizing 72 participants to AIT or EFT (51 completed follow-up), there were no significant differences in SUD scores between groups (1.3 ± 0.6 for EFT vs 1.7 ± 0.5 for AIT, p=0.1), with both therapies maintaining low distress levels long-term.

How the study worked

Who took partcollege and professional students recalling a past distressing memory (n=51)

What they didIn a randomized controlled trial, participants were randomly assigned to receive tapping or a comparison condition, then measured and compared.

Compared withAdvanced Integrative Therapy (AIT)

Measured withSubjective Units of Distress (SUD)

💡 Where this could help

If durability like this continues to show up, picture someone who worked through a single distressing memory with tapping, a technique they could have learned and administered themselves, still feeling the relief six months later without needing ongoing sessions or a therapist on call. That kind of lasting, one-time relief could matter for people who can't commit to long-term therapy.

🔬 What to study next

If low distress at six months keeps holding up in bigger samples, it's worth testing whether that calm shows up physiologically too — does recalling the once-distressing memory still provoke an amygdala reactivity spike on fMRI, or has tapping actually blunted the fear-memory retrieval response at a neural level? Comparing EFT's single-memory protocol against exposure-based approaches with neuroimaging would show whether this is genuine memory reconsolidation or simple habituation.

The full record

Design	Randomized trial
Participants	51 people
Population	college and professional students recalling a past distressing memory
Comparison group	Advanced Integrative Therapy (AIT)
Outcome measures	Subjective Units of Distress (SUD)
Journal	Psychology
Year	2024
Country	United States
Language	English
Method	EFT / tapping
Publication type	Study / trial
Verification	✓ Confirmed against the primary source

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Brown, G., Batra, K., Dorin, E., Han, A., Palermini, A., Sottile, R., & Khanbijian, S. (2024). Six-Month Follow-Up Comparing AIT and EFT in the Reduction of Negative Emotions Associated with a Past Memory. Psychology. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2024.1512109

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 Trauma (other)