Wright, S., Karyotaki, E., Cuijpers, P., et al. · Psychological Medicine · 2024
One-stage individual participant data meta-analysis found no significant difference between EMDR and other psychological treatments (including EFT as one comparator) in reducing PTSD symptom severity, achieving response, remission, or dropout rates.
Individual participant data meta-analysis is about as rigorous as psychotherapy comparison research gets — pooling raw patient-level data across 8 trials rather than just summary statistics — so finding no significant difference between EMDR and this basket of alternatives, EFT included, is a genuinely serious data point, not a soft claim.
Imagine a PTSD patient told EMDR isn't available in their area, wondering whether any of the alternatives are worth pursuing. Unlike EMDR, tapping doesn't require a specially trained clinician to deliver it — it can be self-taught and practiced independently — so if future analyses can pull EFT out of this therapy-mix and show it holds its own on its own merits, it could give patients a genuine, evidence-backed option even where no EMDR-trained therapist is available at all.
Since EFT was pooled here inside a broader 'other therapies' bucket, the obvious next step is extracting it as its own arm across these same patient-level datasets to see whether it holds up independently against EMDR rather than being diluted alongside relaxation therapy. Layering objective PTSD biomarkers — HRV, cortisol reactivity to trauma-cue exposure, or fMRI amygdala/prefrontal connectivity — into a head-to-head EFT-vs-EMDR individual participant data analysis would show whether the two therapies converge on the same physiological endpoint, not just similar symptom scores.
| Design | Meta-analysis |
|---|---|
| Participants | 346 people |
| Population | adults with above-threshold baseline PTSD symptoms, pooled across 8 of 15 eligible RCTs |
| Comparison group | EMDR vs relaxation therapy, EFT, trauma-focused CBT, and REM-desensitization (pooled as 'other psychological treatments') |
| Outcome measures | PTSD symptom severity, treatment response, PTSD remission, treatment dropout |
| Journal | Psychological Medicine |
| Year | 2024 |
| Language | English |
| Method | EFT / tapping |
| Publication type | Review or meta-analysis |
| Verification | ✓ Confirmed against the primary source |
Wright, S., Karyotaki, E., Cuijpers, P., & et al. (2024). EMDR v. other psychological therapies for PTSD: a systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis. Psychological Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291723003446
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 PTSD & Trauma
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