Effectiveness of emotional freedom techniques therapy in alleviating anticipatory grief for cancer patients

Controlled trial 👥 58 participants ⚖️ vs. routine care 📈 Cohen's -2.99 (large) Moderate rigor ✓ Source-checked 📍 China

In plain English. Fifty-eight people being treated for cancer — many grappling with the fear and sadness of an uncertain future, on top of anxiety and poor sleep — either added four weeks of short guided tapping sessions to their usual care or just continued usual care. The tapping group felt less anticipatory grief, less anxious, and slept better than the comparison group by the end of the month. It's a fairly small trial from a single research group, so a larger follow-up would help confirm the size of the benefit.

What they found

Cohen's = -2.99

a large effect · on anticipatory grief (Preparatory Grief in Advanced Cancer Patients scale, higher=

small moderate large

0 0.5 0.8 2.5

Fifty-eight people being treated for cancer — many grappling with the fear and sadness of an uncertain future, on top of anxiety and poor sleep — either added…

58 cancer patients were allocated by ward (not individually randomized, though the paper labels itself an RCT) to 4 weeks of EFT plus routine care (n=30) or routine care alone (n=28); the EFT group had significantly lower anticipatory grief (p<.01), greater anxiety reduction (p=.04), and improved sleep quality (p<.01) after 4 weeks.

How the study worked

Who took part cancer patients experiencing anticipatory grief, anxiety, and sleep disturbance (n=58)

What they did In a controlled trial, a tapping group was compared against a separate comparison group.

Compared with routine care

Measured with Preparatory Grief in Advanced Cancer Patients scale, Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index

💡 Where this could help

Picture someone mid-cancer-treatment, lying awake dreading a future they can't control, on top of everyday anxiety and poor sleep. If this small trial's results replicate at scale, it points toward a short guided practice patients could layer onto routine cancer care — introduced once by an oncology nurse, no psycho-oncology referral needed, and then practiced independently by the patient whenever dread resurfaces.

🔬 What to study next

Anticipatory grief, anxiety, and poor sleep in cancer patients are all tangled up with the body's stress response, so the compelling next step is adding objective markers already tracked in oncology — salivary cortisol, inflammatory cytokines like IL-6, and actigraphy-measured sleep — to see if the psychological relief here tracks a biological one. It would also be worth testing whether oncology nurses can introduce this once and let patients carry it through the full arc of treatment, since anticipatory grief doesn't resolve in four weeks.

The full record

Design	Controlled trial
Participants	58 people
Population	cancer patients experiencing anticipatory grief, anxiety, and sleep disturbance
Comparison group	routine care
Effect size	Cohen's d = -2.99 — on anticipatory grief (Preparatory Grief in Advanced Cancer Patients scale, higher=worse), EFT vs routine-care control (between-group), post-intervention (4 weeks); EFT lower. Computed from Table 2 post-test means/SDs (EFT 36.53±6.30 n=30 vs control 55.70±6.53 n=28). Note: allocation was by ward, not formal randomization, despite the RCT label
Outcome measures	Preparatory Grief in Advanced Cancer Patients scale, Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index
Journal	Medicine (Baltimore)
Year	2025
Country	China
Language	English
Method	EFT / Tapping
Publication type	Study / trial
Verification	✓ Confirmed against the primary source

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Zheng, D., Xiao, W., Duan, D., Tang, C., & Lin, X. (2025). Effectiveness of emotional freedom techniques therapy in alleviating anticipatory grief for cancer patients. Medicine (Baltimore). https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000044211

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 Cancer & Serious Illness · Sleep & Insomnia