Choi, S.H., Sung, S.-H., Lee, G. · Healthcare (Basel) · 2025
All six studies comparing EFT to no intervention reported significant reductions in anxiety symptoms favoring EFT; versus active controls, EFT showed effects similar to or better than breathing therapy and progressive muscle relaxation, with no significant difference from CBT; risk-of-bias assessment rated 1 study low, 5 some concerns, and 1 high risk.
With 7 RCTs across dramatically different populations converging on the same anxiety-reducing signal, this isn't one quirky trial or one culture-bound result — that kind of consistency across such different fingerprints of anxiety is the sort of replication weight that starts to look like a real, generalizable effect.
Consider a nurse working double shifts, a pregnant woman anxious about her pregnancy, or a student paralyzed before finals — different lives, same racing thoughts. If tapping continues to perform on par with CBT across these varied groups, it could offer something CBT can't: a technique learned once and then used independently, for free, exactly when formal therapy isn't accessible or fast enough.
With this signal converging across such different groups — fibromyalgia patients, women with Hwabyung, pregnant women, students, nurses — the next step is a harmonized biomarker sub-study layered onto future trials feeding this review: cortisol and HRV measured alongside the STAI, to see whether the subjective anxiety drop tracks a genuine physiological calming across these very different bodies and stressors. Mapping dose-response (since session counts varied widely across the 7 trials) would also help clarify how much tapping is actually needed.
| Design | Systematic review |
|---|---|
| Participants | 506 people |
| Population | mixed clinical (fibromyalgia, Hwabyung, pregnant women) and non-clinical (students, nurses, general adults) populations across 7 RCTs |
| Comparison group | varied — no treatment, supportive interviews, CBT, breathing therapy, progressive muscle relaxation |
| Outcome measures | STAI, SUDS, W-DEQ-B, Speech Anxiety Scale, trait anger scales (varied by study) |
| Journal | Healthcare (Basel) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Country | South Korea |
| Language | English |
| Method | EFT / tapping |
| Publication type | Review or meta-analysis |
| Verification | ✓ Confirmed against the primary source |
Choi, S.H., Sung, S.-H., & Lee, G. (2025). Emotional Freedom Techniques for Anxiety Disorders: A Systematic Review. Healthcare (Basel). https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13172180
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 Anxiety
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