Descriptive title: this study was catalogued from a peer-reviewed meta-analysis table, and the original paper's exact title has not yet been independently confirmed.
Geronilla, L., McWilliams, M., Clond, M., Palmer-Hoffman, J. · 2016
Six EFT sessions vs treatment-as-usual in 58 veterans; between-group anxiety difference d=2.3 (95% CI 1.38-3.22, p<0.001), one of the largest effects in this literature. The same trial's PTSD outcome is reported in Sebastian & Nelms 2017 (d=3.06) and Stapleton 2023 (g=2.51).
If an effect this large keeps showing up across independent replications, picture veterans carrying wartime anxiety for years, offered six sessions after which they can keep administering the technique to themselves for free, cutting that burden faster than many longer therapy courses require. That kind of speed matters for veterans whose access to sustained mental health care is limited by distance, stigma, or long wait times.
An anxiety effect this large deserves replication with objective measures common in PTSD research — heart-rate variability, cortisol reactivity to a standardized stress task, or even startle-response testing — to see whether the self-reported drop is mirrored physiologically. It would also be worth testing whether six sessions is really the right dose, since knowing the minimum effective number would matter enormously for scaling this to veterans facing long VA waitlists.
| Design | Randomized trial |
|---|---|
| Participants | 58 people |
| Population | veterans with PTSD (PCL-M clinical cutoff) |
| Comparison group | treatment as usual / waitlist |
| Effect size | Cohen's d (EFT vs TAU) = 2.3 (95% CI 1.38–3.22) — on anxiety symptoms |
| Outcome measures | PCL-M, SA-45 |
| Journal | Original publication venue not confirmed (indexed via Clond 2016 Table 1/2; also cited as Geronilla et al. 2016 in later reviews) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Method | EFT / Tapping |
| Publication type | Study / trial |
| Verification | ✓ Confirmed against the primary source |
Geronilla, L., McWilliams, M., Clond, M., & Palmer-Hoffman, J. (2016). Veterans PTSD trial with anxiety outcome (as tabulated in Clond 2016 / Sebastian & Nelms 2017 / Stapleton 2023). https://doi.org/10.9769/EPJ.2016.8.2.LG
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 · PTSD & Trauma
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