Kemala Sari, N., Burhan, E., Isbaniah, F., Yennita, D., Stepvia, S. · Frontiers in Psychology · 2025
OSCI scores decreased from 3-4 to 1 (66-75% reduction in clinical severity) and IL-6 levels fell approximately 85% on average across five elderly COVID-19 patients receiving daily EFT alongside standard care, with no adverse events.
IL-6 is an inflammatory marker doctors watch closely in severe COVID-19, because a runaway inflammatory response is often what turns a survivable infection into a fatal one. In this small group of hospitalized elderly patients, IL-6 fell by roughly 85% alongside dramatic clinical recovery — a drop in a blood marker that reflects what's actually happening inside the immune system, not just how patients said they felt.
If a larger study confirms this pattern, it suggests tapping could be added at the bedside as a simple, no-cost, no-drug-interaction practice for the sickest and most vulnerable patients — the elderly, the immunocompromised, people in ICUs where every additional medication carries risk. Because it needs no special equipment and can be taught in minutes even to a patient lying in a hospital bed, it could be one of the few interventions frail patients can largely do themselves.
With only five patients and no control arm, the obvious next step is a controlled trial that adds standard care alone as a comparison, but the more interesting biology question is the inflammatory cascade: does an IL-6 drop travel with parallel drops in CRP and other cytokines, and does it show up on the same days that frailty and oxygen needs are also improving? Tracking a full inflammatory panel daily alongside clinical severity scores could reveal whether tapping is nudging one marker or calming the whole immune storm.
| Design | Case series |
|---|---|
| Participants | 5 people |
| Population | elderly patients with confirmed COVID-19 admitted to Persahabatan Hospital, Jakarta |
| Outcome measures | WHO Ordinal Scale for Clinical Improvement (OSCI), WHAS frailty criteria, serum IL-6 levels |
| Journal | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Year | 2025 |
| Country | Indonesia |
| Language | English |
| Method | EFT / tapping |
| Publication type | Case report |
| Verification | ✓ Confirmed against the primary source |
Kemala Sari, N., Burhan, E., Isbaniah, F., Yennita, D., & Stepvia, S. (2025). Emotional freedom techniques for elderly patients with COVID-19: a case series on clinical recovery, frailty, and inflammatory biomarkers. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1627592
This record is part of the Tapping Evidence Base — an openly-sourced, fully-referenced directory of the research on EFT/tapping.
A ready-made graphic — right-click or long-press to save the image.