Neural changes after Emotional Freedom Techniques treatment for chronic pain sufferers

Outcome study👥 24 participantsPreliminary✓ Source-checked📍 Australia

In plain English. Twenty-four adults with chronic pain did a six-week online group EFT program and had their brain activity scanned via fMRI before and after. Along with meaningful improvements in pain, mood, and quality of life, their brain scans showed reduced connectivity between pain-processing brain regions in a pattern consistent with less pain catastrophizing. There's no control group, so we can't rule out that some of the change reflects general effects of participating in a structured program, but the brain-imaging data adds an interesting objective dimension.

What they found

people took part

A repeated measures MANOVA indicated significant differences in pain severity (-21%), pain interference (-26%), quality of life (+7%), somatic symptoms (-28%), depression (-13.5%), anxiety (-37.1%), happiness (+17%), and satisfaction with life (+8.8%); fMRI showed decreased connectivity between the medial prefrontal cortex and areas related to pain modulation and catastrophizing.

How the study worked

Who took partadults with chronic pain (n=24)

What they didParticipants received tapping and were measured before and after, without a separate comparison group.

Measured withfunctional MRI brain connectivity, pain severity and interference scales, quality of life, somatic symptoms, depression, anxiety, happiness, life satisfaction scales

⭐ Why this study matters

An fMRI scan measures brain activity directly rather than relying on a mood questionnaire. In this small study (24 people, no control group), reduced connectivity in pain-related networks was seen alongside self-reported improvement. It is an early mechanistic signal worth replicating in a controlled trial, not proof of how tapping works.

💡 Where this could help

If this pattern holds up in larger trials, it hints that people living with chronic pain could learn a technique over a matter of weeks, entirely from an online program on their own time, that measurably changes how their brain processes and amplifies pain signals — without a pill, a procedure, or ongoing clinic visits.

🔬 What to study next

A logical next step is pairing fMRI with cortisol or inflammatory markers and a wearable tracking heart-rate variability across the same six-week program, to see whether the drop in prefrontal-pain connectivity moves in step with changes in stress biology and daily reported pain. It would also be worth testing whether the degree of connectivity change predicts who gets the most pain relief, and whether more tapping practice produces larger neural shifts.

The full record

Design	Outcome study
Participants	24 people
Population	adults with chronic pain
Outcome measures	functional MRI brain connectivity, pain severity and interference scales, quality of life, somatic symptoms, depression, anxiety, happiness, life satisfaction scales
Journal	Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice
Year	2022
Country	Australia
Language	English
Method	EFT / tapping
Publication type	Study / trial
Verification	✓ Confirmed against the primary source

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Stapleton, P., Oliver, B., O'Keefe, T., & Bhuta, S. (2022). Neural changes after Emotional Freedom Techniques treatment for chronic pain sufferers. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2022.101653

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 Other Physical Conditions · Depression · Anxiety