The Tapping Evidence Base
PTSD & Trauma · Anxiety · Depression · Pain

Reductions in pain, depression, and anxiety symptoms after PTSD remediation in veterans

Church, D., Brooks, A. J. · Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing · 2014

Randomized trial👥 59 participants⚖️ vs. primary care aloneHigher rigor✓ Source-checked📍 United States
In plain English. Fifty-nine veterans with clinically significant PTSD symptoms, on top of their usual care, received six sessions of EFT coaching. Even though pain, depression, and anxiety weren't the direct target, all three improved significantly along with PTSD symptoms, and the pain relief was still there six months later. This randomized trial adds to a body of evidence that treating PTSD with EFT tends to lift mood and reduce pain as well, not just trauma symptoms in isolation.

What they found

59
people took part

Pain decreased significantly during the intervention period (-41%, p < .0001), and anxiety and depression both reduced significantly, alongside significant PTSD symptom improvement, with gains tracked at 3 and 6 months.

How the study worked

Who took partveterans with clinical levels of PTSD symptoms (n=59)
What they didIn a randomized controlled trial, participants were randomly assigned to receive tapping or a comparison condition, then measured and compared.
Compared withprimary care alone
Measured withSA-45 (9 symptom domains, breadth and depth scales)

💡 Where this could help

If treating PTSD with tapping keeps lifting pain, depression, and anxiety as a side effect of trauma relief, it could mean veterans dealing with the whole tangled bundle of war's aftereffects — not just flashbacks but chronic pain and low mood too — get one accessible technique that touches all of it, rather than juggling separate treatments for each symptom. Because that one technique is self-administered, a veteran could keep applying it themselves across all of those symptoms long after their sessions with a clinician have ended.

🔬 What to study next

Pain, depression, and anxiety all improving together here raises the interesting question of whether that reflects one shared underlying shift in stress physiology — cortisol or inflammatory markers linked to the chronic pain and PTSD combination that's so common in veterans — rather than four separate effects that happened to move at once.

The full record

DesignRandomized trial
Participants59 people
Populationveterans with clinical levels of PTSD symptoms
Comparison groupprimary care alone
Outcome measuresSA-45 (9 symptom domains, breadth and depth scales)
JournalExplore: The Journal of Science and Healing
Year2014
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
MethodEFT / tapping
Publication typeStudy / trial
Verification✓ Confirmed against the primary source
Verification note. The recorded title was for a DIFFERENT real Church & Brooks 2014 Explore paper ('CAM and energy psychology techniques remediate PTSD symptoms in veterans and spouses', N=218 veterans+spouses). The N=59/primary-care-comparator/pain -41% data in this record actually belong to Church, D. 'Reductions in pain, depression, and anxiety symptoms after PTSD remediation in veterans' (Explore 2014;10(3):162-9, PMID 24767263). Title and url corrected to match the data already in this record; author list retained but not independently re-confirmed for this specific paper.

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Church, D., & Brooks, A. J. (2014). Reductions in pain, depression, and anxiety symptoms after PTSD remediation in veterans. Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing.

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 · Depression · Pain

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THE TAPPING EVIDENCE BASE PTSD & Trauma 59 participants WHAT THEY FOUND Pain decreased significantly during theintervention period (-41%, p < .0001), andanxiety and depression both… Randomized trial · 59 participants Church · 2014 · evidence.thetappingsolution.com