Emotional freedom techniques for anxiety, depression, and quality of life in middle-aged and older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A randomized controlled trial in China

Randomized trial👥 90 participants⚖️ vs. routine careModerate rigor✓ Source-checked📍 China

In plain English. Ninety people in Nanjing, China with COPD (a chronic lung disease) who were also dealing with real anxiety and depression took part in this study. Half got their usual hospital care; half got usual care plus six weeks of tapping sessions. By six weeks, the tapping group had bigger drops in anxiety and depression and did better on sleep, fatigue, and lung-disease-specific quality of life than the group that didn't tap. This is a single-site trial in one hospital, so it's a solid early result rather than a settled answer across all COPD patients.

What they found

people took part

90 COPD inpatients with anxiety (AIR-C >=8) and depression (SDS >53) were randomized to routine care (n=45) or routine care plus a 6-week EFT program (n=45); the EFT group showed larger declines in anxiety and depression at week 6 and greater improvement in sleep quality, fatigue, and CAT quality-of-life scores than controls.

How the study worked

Who took partmiddle-aged and older adult inpatients with COPD and comorbid anxiety and depression at a tertiary hospital in Nanjing, China (n=90)

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 withAIR-C (anxiety), SDS (depression), PSQI (sleep), MCFS (fatigue), CAT (COPD-specific quality of life)

💡 Where this could help

If this small hospital finding generalizes, picture someone gasping for breath with COPD, whose anxiety about breathlessness itself makes the disease feel worse, given a self-administered technique to practice at bedside between doctor visits, something they control themselves to calm that spiral rather than waiting on staff. It could matter most for patients in overstretched pulmonary wards where a mental health specialist visit is a luxury.

🔬 What to study next

COPD anxiety and breathlessness feed each other, so the next step is testing whether tapping breaks that loop at a physiological level — does anxiety-driven breathing rate settle, does heart-rate variability improve, do inflammatory markers tied to COPD flare-ups (like CRP and fibrinogen) trend down alongside the reported gains in sleep and fatigue? Actigraphy could replace self-reported sleep and fatigue scores with objective tracking of movement and rest. A larger, multi-site trial with a longer follow-up would also show whether the quality-of-life gains persist once patients are discharged.

The full record

Design	Randomized trial
Participants	90 people
Population	middle-aged and older adult inpatients with COPD and comorbid anxiety and depression at a tertiary hospital in Nanjing, China
Comparison group	routine care
Outcome measures	AIR-C (anxiety), SDS (depression), PSQI (sleep), MCFS (fatigue), CAT (COPD-specific quality of life)
Journal	Unknown (ScienceDirect, Elsevier — journal title not confirmed)
Year	2025
Country	China
Language	English
Method	EFT / tapping
Publication type	Study / trial
Verification	✓ Confirmed against the primary source

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Unknown, & et al. (2025). Emotional freedom techniques for anxiety, depression, and quality of life in middle-aged and older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A randomized controlled trial in China. Unknown (ScienceDirect, Elsevier — journal title not confirmed).

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 · Depression · Sleep & Insomnia · Other Physical Conditions