Outcome-specific record — catalogued as: Trial of EFT in overweight/obese adults with elevated anxiety (as tabulated in Clond 2016 / Nelms & Castel 2016)
Stapleton, P., et al. · 2013
Four EFT sessions (n=49) vs waitlist (n=47); anxiety difference d=0.27 (95% CI −0.12–0.66, p=0.177), not statistically significant in Clond's table. The same sample's depression outcome (N=45 analyzed) is reported in Nelms & Castel 2016 as d=0.37 (−21% symptom change).
Depression outcomes in this same sample did show a modest improvement, so if larger trials confirm a real anxiety benefit too, it could give people managing both weight and anxiety together — a combination often treated as two separate problems — one approach that addresses both at once. Because that one approach is self-administered, a person wouldn't need to coordinate two separate specialists or two separate copays to get at both.
Since the anxiety result here didn't reach significance while depression in the same sample showed a modest gain, a larger trial should track objective stress and metabolic markers — cortisol, inflammatory markers linked to both weight and anxiety — to see whether a real physiological effect exists that self-report alone isn't picking up. Testing more than four sessions, or combining tapping with a standard weight-management or anxiety program, would also clarify whether dose was simply too low to detect a true effect.
| Design | Randomized trial |
|---|---|
| Participants | 96 people |
| Population | overweight/obese adults with elevated anxiety (>50% on SA-45) |
| Comparison group | waitlist |
| Effect size | Cohen's d (EFT vs waitlist) = 0.27 (95% CI −0.12–0.66) — on anxiety, EFT vs waitlist; between-group d=0.27 (95% CI -0.12 to 0.66, p=.177, NOT significant) per Clond (2016), whose control-group baseline was imputed. |
| Outcome measures | SA-45 |
| Journal | Original publication venue not confirmed (indexed via Clond 2016 Table 1/2 and Nelms & Castel 2016 Table 4) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Method | EFT / Tapping |
| Publication type | Study / trial |
| Verification | ✓ Confirmed against the primary source |
Stapleton, P., & et al. (2013). Depression symptoms improve after successful weight loss with emotional freedom techniques. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/573532
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 · Weight & Food Cravings
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