Anxiety and Anger Symptoms in Hwabyung Patients Improved More following 4 Weeks of the Emotional Freedom Technique Program Compared to the Progressive Muscle Relaxation Program: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Randomized trial👥 40 participants⚖️ vs. progressive muscle relaxation (PMR)Moderate rigor✓ Source-checked📍 South Korea

In plain English. Forty people in Korea with Hwabyung — a condition tied to long-suppressed anger — were split into two groups: one did four weeks of tapping in a group setting, the other did progressive muscle relaxation. The tapping group ended up with bigger improvements in anxiety, anger, and physical symptoms, and those gains held up better over six months when people kept practicing on their own. It's a modestly sized study comparing two active techniques rather than one active treatment against nothing.

What they found

people took part

40 Hwabyung patients were randomized to 4 weeks of group EFT (n=20) or PMR (n=20); the EFT group improved more than the PMR group on physical symptoms and on overall anxiety and anger, with better maintenance of gains during self-training through 24-week follow-up.

How the study worked

Who took partKorean adults diagnosed with Hwabyung, an anger-suppression psychosomatic condition (n=40)

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

Compared withprogressive muscle relaxation (PMR)

Measured withanxiety scale, anger scale, Hwabyung physical symptom scale

💡 Where this could help

Picture someone who has swallowed anger for years — a family caregiver, an employee unable to speak up — until it shows up as physical illness. If tapping's edge over relaxation training here replicates, it suggests a self-taught skill people could keep practicing on their own long after formal sessions end, sustaining relief without needing ongoing appointments.

🔬 What to study next

Suppressed anger expressed as physical illness is a striking mechanistic story to test directly — do cortisol and catecholamine levels, the body's classic stress-hormone markers, track with the anxiety and anger score improvements seen here? Heart-rate variability and inflammatory markers would round out the biological picture, and neuroimaging of anger-regulation circuits could show whether tapping is changing how the brain processes suppressed emotion. A longer follow-up beyond 24 weeks would also test how durable the self-training maintenance really is.

The full record

Design	Randomized trial
Participants	40 people
Population	Korean adults diagnosed with Hwabyung, an anger-suppression psychosomatic condition
Comparison group	progressive muscle relaxation (PMR)
Outcome measures	anxiety scale, anger scale, Hwabyung physical symptom scale
Journal	Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Year	2015
Country	South Korea
Language	English
Method	EFT / tapping
Publication type	Study / trial
Verification	✓ Confirmed against the primary source

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Kwak, H.-Y., & et al. (2015). Anxiety and Anger Symptoms in Hwabyung Patients Improved More following 4 Weeks of the Emotional Freedom Technique Program Compared to the Progressive Muscle Relaxation Program: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

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 Trauma (other) · Anxiety