The effect of emotional freedom techniques on anxiety depression and sleep in older people living with HIV: a randomized controlled trial

Randomized trial👥 70 participants⚖️ vs. standard nursing care and health guidanceModerate rigor✓ Source-checked📍 China

In plain English. Seventy older adults in Nanjing, China living with HIV — many dealing with anxiety, low mood, and poor sleep — were split into two groups. Half added a short daily tapping session to their usual care for two weeks; half continued with usual care alone. The tapping group ended up with better anxiety, mood, and sleep scores than the group that didn't tap. It's a fairly short intervention window (two weeks) in a specific population, so longer-term durability isn't yet established.

What they found

people took part

70 older adults living with HIV at the Nanjing Public Health Medical Center were randomized to 2 weeks of daily 15-20 minute EFT sessions (n=35) added to routine care, or routine care alone (n=35); the EFT group showed a positive effect on relieving anxiety and depression and improving sleep quality compared to controls.

How the study worked

Who took partadults aged 50+ living with HIV in Nanjing, China, with clinically significant anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbance (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 withstandard nursing care and health guidance

Measured withPittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Hospital Anxiety Scale, Hospital Depression Scale

💡 Where this could help

If these short-term gains prove durable, picture an older adult aging with HIV, carrying both the physical burden of the virus and the isolation and anxiety that can come with it, learning a brief daily practice they administer to themselves, added onto routine nursing care rather than yet another specialist referral. It could matter most in settings where mental health support for older HIV patients is scarce.

🔬 What to study next

Older adults aging with HIV already carry elevated chronic inflammation, which makes this a natural place to look for a biological echo of the psychological benefit — inflammatory and immune-activation markers already tracked in HIV cohorts, or actigraphy-measured sleep, could show whether two weeks of daily tapping does more than change how people describe their mood. A longer follow-up would also matter here, since this population's anxiety and depression are often chronic rather than episodic.

The full record

Design	Randomized trial
Participants	70 people
Population	adults aged 50+ living with HIV in Nanjing, China, with clinically significant anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbance
Comparison group	standard nursing care and health guidance
Outcome measures	Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Hospital Anxiety Scale, Hospital Depression Scale
Journal	AIDS Research and Therapy
Year	2024
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

Qi, W., Xinyi, Y., Yuhan, W., & et al. (2024). The effect of emotional freedom techniques on anxiety depression and sleep in older people living with HIV: a randomized controlled trial. AIDS Research and Therapy. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12981-024-00679-4

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