The effect of the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) on pain and depression in cancer patients: a randomized controlled trial

Randomized trial👥 70 participants⚖️ vs. routine careModerate rigor✓ Source-checked📍 Turkey

In plain English. Seventy people being treated for cancer were split into a group that got four half-hour tapping sessions over two weeks and a group that received usual hospital care. The tapping group's pain ratings dropped by roughly half and their depression scores dropped by more than a third, while the usual-care group barely improved on pain and actually got slightly more depressed over the same two weeks. It's a single-hospital study, so it's a strong early result that would benefit from replication elsewhere.

What they found

people took part

70 cancer patients were randomized to 4 EFT sessions over two weeks (n=35) or routine care (n=35); pain (VAS) fell from 4.82 to 2.44 in the EFT group versus 5.36 to 4.25 in controls (EFT p<0.05, control not significant), and depression (BDI) fell from 31.44 to 18.44 in the EFT group while it rose slightly in controls (27.94 to 31.42).

How the study worked

Who took partcancer patients in an oncology ward in eastern Turkey experiencing pain and depression (n=70)

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

Compared withroutine care

Measured withVisual Analog Scale (pain), Beck Depression Inventory

💡 Where this could help

Picture a cancer patient in a hospital bed, managing both physical pain and the depression of a serious diagnosis, whose care team can offer medication but limited time for emotional support. If this pattern of relief for both pain and mood replicates elsewhere, tapping could become part of routine oncology nursing care — a short session taught during rounds that the patient can then repeat alone between rounds, rather than requiring a separate, hard-to-schedule referral each time.

🔬 What to study next

The next logical step is tracking the biology beneath these numbers: does the drop in reported pain and depression track with falling inflammatory markers like IL-6 and CRP, which are elevated in cancer-related pain and mood disturbance, or with improved heart-rate variability as the nervous system calms? Salivary cortisol rhythms and actigraphy-tracked sleep would show whether the relief is showing up in the body, not just on a questionnaire. It would also be worth testing tapping as a structured add-on across multiple oncology wards and cancer types, and seeing whether relief holds as chemotherapy cycles continue.

The full record

Design	Randomized trial
Participants	70 people
Population	cancer patients in an oncology ward in eastern Turkey experiencing pain and depression
Comparison group	routine care
Outcome measures	Visual Analog Scale (pain), Beck Depression Inventory
Journal	Supportive Care in Cancer
Year	2025
Country	Turkey
Language	English
Method	EFT / tapping
Publication type	Study / trial
Verification	✓ Confirmed against the primary source

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Kaplan, M., & Çelik, H. (2025). The effect of the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) on pain and depression in cancer patients: a randomized controlled trial. Supportive Care in Cancer. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-025-09814-x

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 Pain · Cancer & Serious Illness