The Tapping Evidence Base
Depression · Weight & Food Cravings

Depression symptoms improve after successful weight loss with emotional freedom techniques

Outcome-specific record — catalogued as: Trial of EFT in overweight/obese adults — depression outcome (as tabulated in Nelms & Castel 2016)

Stapleton, P., et al. · 2013

Randomized trial 👥 96 participants ⚖️ vs. waitlist 📈 Cohen's 0.37 (small) Moderate rigor 📍 Australia
In plain English. In this weight-loss tapping trial, depression symptoms fell from before to after tapping (a within-group change, d=0.37) - a smaller effect than seen in many other studies in this body of research. The trial's controlled comparison against waitlist is reported for its anxiety and weight outcomes in separate records.

What they found

Cohen's = 0.37
a small effect · on depressive symptoms
small moderate large
0 0.5 0.8 2.5
In this weight-loss tapping trial, depression symptoms fell from before to after tapping (a within-group change, d=0.

Depression symptoms decreased by 21% (d=0.37) in this sample; the same study's anxiety outcome (analyzed N=96) is recorded separately with d=0.27.

How the study worked

Who took part overweight/obese adults (n=96)
What they did In a randomized controlled trial, participants were randomly assigned to receive tapping or a comparison condition, then measured and compared.
Compared with waitlist
Measured with SA-45

💡 Where this could help

Think of someone whose weight struggles and low mood feed into each other in a discouraging loop. If this modest effect strengthens with more research, tapping — learnable on one's own and free to keep practicing — could become one small piece of a broader plan for people managing depression tied to body image and weight, not a stand-alone fix, but a genuine option worth having.

🔬 What to study next

Weight struggles and low mood can feed into each other through a shared stress-eating cycle, so the interesting next step is testing whether this modest depression benefit tracks objective markers implicated in that cycle — cortisol, insulin or leptin, or inflammatory markers linked to both obesity and depression. It would also be worth testing whether combining tapping with existing weight-management or nutrition programs produces a bigger combined effect than either approach alone.

The full record

DesignRandomized trial
Participants96 people
Populationoverweight/obese adults
Comparison groupwaitlist
Effect sizeCohen's d = 0.37 — on depressive symptoms
Outcome measuresSA-45
JournalOriginal publication venue not confirmed (indexed via Nelms & Castel 2016 Table 4)
Year2013
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
MethodEFT / Tapping
Publication typeStudy / trial
VerificationTranscribed from a peer-reviewed source; pending independent confirmation

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

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 Depression · Weight & Food Cravings

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THE TAPPING EVIDENCE BASE Depression Cohen's 0.37 small effect WHAT THEY FOUND Depression symptoms decreased by 21%(d=0.37) in this sample; the same study'sanxiety outcome (analyzed N=96) is… Randomized trial · 96 participants Stapleton · 2013 · evidence.thetappingsolution.com