Azzizadeh Forouzi, M., Taebi, M., Samarehfekri, A., Rashidipour, N. · Annals of Medicine and Surgery · 2024
60 students (30 per group) were randomized to 6 weekly 45-minute online EFT sessions or a no-intervention control; mean exam anxiety dropped to 50.88 in the intervention group versus 65.36 in the control group post-intervention (p<0.001).
Picture a nursing student anywhere in the world, studying for a high-stakes exam over video call because in-person mental health support isn't available on campus. If this pattern of relief from online, remote-delivered tapping holds up, it could become part of standard exam-prep support offered to students in under-resourced universities worldwide — taught once over video, then practiced by the student alone afterward, at a fraction of the cost of ongoing individual counseling.
Since anxiety was measured only by questionnaire, the next step is pairing that with something harder to fake around exam day — cortisol or heart-rate variability — and checking whether calmer students actually perform better on the exam itself, not just feel calmer beforehand. It would also be worth testing a single-session or app-guided version against the full six-week course, since knowing the minimum effective dose is what would let this scale to students who can't commit to six weeks of sessions.
| Design | Randomized trial |
|---|---|
| Participants | 60 people |
| Population | Iranian nursing, midwifery, and paramedical students (2nd to 8th semester) |
| Comparison group | no intervention |
| Effect size | Cohen's d = -1.15 — on test anxiety (Test Anxiety Inventory), EFT vs no-intervention control (between-group), post-intervention; computed from Table 3 (EFT 50.88±8.84 n=27 vs control 65.36±15.23 n=30, t=-4.32, p<0.001) |
| Outcome measures | test anxiety questionnaire |
| Journal | Annals of Medicine and Surgery |
| Year | 2024 |
| Country | Iran |
| Language | English |
| Method | EFT / Tapping |
| Publication type | Study / trial |
| Verification | ✓ Confirmed against the primary source |
Azzizadeh Forouzi, M., Taebi, M., Samarehfekri, A., & Rashidipour, N. (2024). The effect of emotional freedom techniques on test anxiety in Iranian Paramedical students: a randomized controlled trial study. Annals of Medicine and Surgery. https://doi.org/10.1097/MS9.0000000000002023
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 Test Anxiety & Students
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