Okyay, E., Ucar, T. · Archives of Psychiatric Nursing · 2023
EFT and a music intervention, delivered separately to pregnant women with a prior prenatal loss, were both associated with greater psychological growth, higher well-being, and lower cortisol levels than the control group, per the study's stated conclusions.
Salivary cortisol is an objective stress-hormone measurement, not a questionnaire score — if tapping is really lowering it in women carrying the specific dread of a repeat pregnancy loss, that's a finding rooted in measurable biology, much harder to write off as expectation or placebo.
Think of a woman pregnant again after a previous loss, carrying quiet dread through every appointment, in a healthcare system that often treats the physical pregnancy but not the grief riding along with it. If these findings replicate with verified data, it points toward tapping as one option — alongside music or other calming practices — that clinics could teach once and let her carry home to use free, anytime dread resurfaces between appointments.
If tapping really lowers cortisol in these grieving, pregnant-again women, the next question is whether that drop cascades further — does HRV rise, does inflammatory load (CRP, IL-6) fall, and does actigraphy show better sleep across the pregnancy as a downstream effect? It would also be worth testing whether the cortisol effect is strongest during the specific high-anxiety gestational window matching the prior loss, and whether pairing EFT with usual prenatal care produces a bigger or more durable biological shift than either music or usual care alone.
| Design | Randomized trial |
|---|---|
| Participants | 159 people |
| Population | Pregnant women with a prior prenatal loss, recruited from gynecology outpatient clinics in Turkey (53 EFT, 53 music, 53 control) |
| Comparison group | music intervention; no-treatment control |
| Outcome measures | Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS), Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI), WHO-5 Well-Being Index, salivary cortisol |
| Journal | Archives of Psychiatric Nursing |
| Year | 2023 |
| Country | Turkey |
| Language | English |
| Method | EFT / Tapping |
| Publication type | Study / trial |
| Verification | ✓ Confirmed against the primary source |
Okyay, E., & Ucar, T. (2023). The effect of emotional freedom technique and music applied to pregnant women who experienced prenatal loss on psychological growth, well-being, and cortisol level: A randomized controlled trial. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2023.04.027
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 · Stress & Cortisol
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