EFT has been researched in more than 10 countries, by more than 60 investigators, whose results have been published in more than 20 different peer-reviewed journals. The gold standard of scientific research is referred to as a meta-analysis. This is in essence a “study of the studies” performed on a specific topic. At the writing of this article, there are currently five meta-analyses published in peer-reviewed journals demonstrating effectiveness for EFT usage for depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. In addition, there are over 50 published randomized controlled trials that have studied and demonstrated effectiveness for EFT.
The results of these studies have been published in more than 15 different peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology, the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease and the APA journals Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training and Review of General Psychology. While questions about mechanism remain – specifically how these techniques work – a robust and growing body of research continues to document their efficacy.(5)
Conditions that have been studied include: general anxiety, test anxiety, phobias, obsessive-compulsion disorder, PTSD, general trauma, stress, depression, addiction, pain including fibromyalgia syndrome, tension headaches, frozen shoulder, psoriasis, insomnia, seizure disorders, sports/athletic performance, learning disabilities/educational challenges, epigenetic and physiological functioning and general psychological functioning.(6)
The demographics of people who have been studied using EFT include: college students, veterans, pain patients, overweight adults, hospital patients, athletes, health-care workers, gifted students, chemotherapy patients and phobia sufferers. (6)