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REVIEW ARTICLE
Tapping Research around the World Energy Psychology 14:1 • May 2022 1
Research on Acupoint Tapping Therapies
Proliferating around the World
John Freedom, Santa Rosa, California USA
Marg Hux, Burlington, Ontario, Canada
Jan Warner, Veteran Aairs Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio USA
John Freedom, CEHP, is a counselor and EFT practitioner
and trainer in private practice in Santa Rosa, California. Au-
thor of Heal Yourself with Emotional Freedom Technique, he
is the research committee chair for the Association for Com-
prehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP), serves on the board
of trustees for EFT International, and is executive director of
Finding Recovery and Empowerment from Abuse (FREA).
Marg Hux, MSc, DipSP, is a registered psychotherapist in
Toronto with a private practice using EFT and spiritual modali-
ties. For 25 years she worked as a health economics researcher
assessing the cost-eectiveness of dierent therapies in health
care systems. Jan Warner, LISWS, PhD, is a clinical social
worker aliated with the Department of Social Work Services,
Veterans Aairs Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio. She is
Abstract
Background: The evidence base for acupoint
tapping including Emotional Freedom Tech-
niques (EFT) includes over 120 clinical trials
showing relatively rapid and durable improve-
ments for a range of psychological and physical
conditions. It supports the premise that tapping
is an active ingredient and shows associated
physiologic changes. This evidence is based in
standard Western literature databases such as
EBSCO and overwhelmingly in English.
Objective: The current report explores interna-
tional and regional research on EFT not previ-
ously known in the Western literature evidence
base.
Methods and Results: A search of Research-
Gate found 87 research studies on acupoint
tapping not identied in standard Western
databases. A systematic search of 21 databases
using the EBSCO search engine yielded an
additional ve previously unknown papers for a
total of 91 research studies. These studies were
published in regional and international journals
(71% in Indonesia) with most published primari-
ly in languages other than English (81% had only
title and/or abstract available in English). EFT
was used in 47% of the studies, and the remain-
ing studies used “Spiritual EFT” (SEFT), a vari-
ation developed in Indonesia combining tapping
with spiritual armations from the Quran. The
majority (84%) were single group or compara-
tive clinical trials and 5% were literature reviews.
The target issue included a range of psychologi-
cal or medical conditions such as anxiety (29%),
depression (15%), and hypertension (11%). In a
further step, the potential magnitude of this addi-
tional research base was explored using Google
Scholar. Challenges include inconsistent quality
of translations, limited search capabilities of
Google Scholar, lack of full text translated into
English, and reasons why this literature is not
found in the major databases.
Conclusion: This review identied a large
number of studies that had been “invisible” in
the West due to their having been published in
non-English journals. They demonstrate growing
interest in EFT throughout the world. In compar-
ison with English-language EFT databases, these
studies tend to be more frequently performed
in treatment settings such as hospitals, clinics,
and universities, and they often address medi-
cal diagnoses such as diabetes, hypertension,
and pain as well as psychological conditions. In
addition, they apply EFT with populations rarely
focused upon in Western EFT studies, such as
prisoners, addicts, cancer patients, and diabet-
ics. Finally, these studies provide a valuable
perspective on how acupoint tapping is being
used around the world in real-life settings.
Keywords: tapping, EFT, Emotional Freedom
Techniques, Energy Psychology, acupoint tap-
ping, Spiritual EFT
2Energy Psychology 14:1 • May 2022 Tapping Research around the World
interested in the applications of EFT to reduce symptoms of
bromyalgia as well as in applications of Energy Psychology
in low- and middle-income countries. Correspondence:
John Freedom, CEHP, 8901 Oak Trail Drive, Santa Rosa, CA
95409; email: freejjii@gmail.com. Disclosures: John Freedom
derives income from the practice of the methods described in
this article. Marg Hux derives income from the practice of
EFT. Jan Warner declares no conict of interest.
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) and
Thought Field Therapy (TFT) are two
modalities within the relatively new thera-
peutic approach known as Energy Psychology.
EFT and TFT, together referred to as “acupoint
tapping protocols,” are evidence based, as exam-
ined in more than 300 peer-reviewed journal arti-
cles, including 120 clinical trials.
This evidence base as described by Feinstein
(2021) shows that acupoint tapping results in
improvements for a range of psychological con-
ditions (anxiety, depression, phobias, anger, post-
traumatic stress disorder [PTSD], chronic pain,
concentration diculties, stress, food cravings,
insomnia, and performance blocks) and physi-
cal conditions (bromyalgia, frozen shoulder,
obesity, pain, psoriasis, and headaches). Recent
independent meta-analyses conrm benets for
three common psychological conditions: anxi-
ety (Clond, 2016), depression (Nelms & Castel,
2016), and PTSD (Sebastian & Nelms, 2017). All
but two of the 120 clinical trials reported statis-
tically signicant improvement in at least one of
the target outcomes (Feinstein, 2021). Addition-
ally, the research shows that results are relatively
rapid (compared to other therapies) and durable,
with benets retained on follow-up of 30 days to
two years.
Although some skeptics have suggested that
the tapping is an inconsequential artifact, six stud-
ies and a meta-analysis have shown that tapping
is an active ingredient in the process (Church &
Gallo, 2018). EFT and TFT are mind-body psy-
chosensory techniques that produce measurable
biological changes on physiological assessments
including cardiovascular function (heart rate
variability [HRV], resting heart rate, blood pres-
sure), immune function (e.g. immunoglobulin A,
increased lymphocyte production), and the stress
hormone cortisol (Babamahmoodi et al., 2015;
Bach et al., 2019). Brain scan studies using qEEG
and fMRI have shown that these protocols increase
or decrease arousal in specic areas of the brain
(Feinstein, 2021). Additionally, the magnitude
of clinical change and brevity of treatment sug-
gest substantial healthcare cost savings (Church,
2010), and tapping described as “combined cog-
nitive and somatic therapies” has been shown to
be cost-eective compared to other standard treat-
ments for PTSD (Mavranezouli, 2020).
In late 2020, the rst author (JF) identied
a body of additional EFT research not part of the
recognized evidence base, which includes research
studies published in English in Western jour-
nals and indexed in major search engines such as
Scopus, EBSCO, PsycInfo, and PubMed. These
additional studies were identied through Research
Gate (researchgate.com). With a subsequent search
of reference lists of the initial papers, a total of 87
research papers of tapping therapies not indexed
in the major search engines were identied. These
papers included clinical studies using single group
or control group designs for psychological or
medical issues and several literature reviews of
the research related to acupoint tapping therapies.
A substantial number used a specic form of EFT
called “Spiritual EFT” (SEFT), a variation of EFT
developed by Ahmad Faiz Zainuddin of Indonesia
that combines tapping with spiritual armations
from the Quran (Zainuddin, 2008).
The existence of this body of additional
research was considered to be potentially sig-
nicant since it may be larger than the previously
known evidence base. Further exploration of this
additional body of research was undertaken.
Locating studies beyond those available
through indexed literature databases, however,
held some challenges in using replicable methods
of evidence review and synthesis. Many published
research studies are not available within the major
indexed databases, as databases such as PubMed
include only journals that have applied and met
strict criteria. For articles that are indexed, there are
powerful search engines with capabilities to facili-
tate identifying, classifying, and extracting infor-
mation from literature on a specic review topic.
To nd literature not within these indexed
databases, web searching tools can provide a
much wider range of information, including pub-
lished studies in regional journals or dissertations.
Google Scholar, for instance, is one web searching
tool for research that uses internet crawler algo-
rithms to nd a wider range of scholarly papers
located on journal hosting platforms, university
libraries, and personal websites.
3
Tapping Research around the World Energy Psychology 14:1 • May 2022
Objective
The current study is an exploration of the
growing number and kinds of acupoint tapping
research studies conducted and published in pro-
fessional journals that are outside the standard
evidence base, as well as the challenges in nding
and identifying such research.
Methods
This exploration considered initial reports
of research studies of acupoint tapping proto-
cols EFT or TFT, collectively labeled “Energy
Psychology” including any of the following
designs: comparative clinical trials (randomized
or not), single cohort studies assessing outcomes
before and after treatment (cohort pre/post), case
series, or qualitative studies. Literature reviews
(systematic or comparative reviews) of acupoint
tapping protocols were also considered eligible.
As the purpose of this review was to explore some
of the additional research not currently known,
only studies not in the current known evidence
base were considered. Studies published in any
language were considered eligible.
An initial search of the EBSCO database sys-
tem was conducted to identify if there were any
further studies not previously identied, with a
focus on publications not in English by exclud-
ing English papers where this was possible within
the member databases of EBSCO. The authors
selected the search data criteria as follows: articles
published between 2000 and 2021 with the fol-
lowing search phrases in the title and/or abstract:
“Emotional Freedom Technique,” “Emotional
Freedom Techniques,” “Energy Psychology,”
“Thought Field Therapy,” and “Spiritual EFT.”
The search was conducted on October 2, 2021, on
21 relevant databases oered by EBSCO.
Screening of articles based on title and abstract
was conducted to identify eligible research studies
or literature reviews not in the currently known evi-
dence base. Editorial opinions and interviews were
excluded. We included combined treatments where
EFT, TFT, or SEFT were studied as a mixed treat-
ment with another intervention such as meditation.
The body of research identied both from
this systematic review and informally was then
combined for our full set (Freedom, 2022). These
were reviewed to abstract relevant characteristics.
Information available in English (titles and cita-
tions) was used insofar as possible, and additional
web searching was conducted for locations of
treatment or study settings. Articles were classied
with regard to country of the research/publication,
English language availability (none, title only,
title and abstract, full text), study design, energy
psychology modality (EFT, TFT, SEFT), combi-
nation with other modality, comparator, study set-
ting (medical, educational, community, forensic),
population, target issue, sample size, and whether
the study reported a signicant benet/eect. As
many papers had only the title and abstract avail-
able in English, and we did not attempt to translate
content from the original language, some of these
factors were unclear.
In a subsequent step, broad web searching via
Google Scholar with the same search terms was
used to explore the potential magnitude, location,
and types of additional research that might exist in
regional medical journals.
Results
The EBSCO database search identied 171
results using the abstract search and 128 results
using the title search, with most of the studies
being found in four databases: Medline, Medline
Complete, APA PsycInfo, and CINAHL Plus.
After screening and removing duplicates, ve
additional eligible publications were found and
added to the articles identied by the rst author
for a full set of 94 articles.
Appendices A and B provide a table of the
study and clinical characteristics for each of the
included studies and a list of the citations for each.
Table 1 summarizes the country, English availabil-
ity, and study types.
The majority (72%) of studies were conducted
in Indonesia or published in Indonesian profes-
sional journals, with Korea (8%) and India (5%)
the next most frequent, and the remaining studies
representing a range of other countries. For most
(81.5%), only abstract and/or title information
was available in English and few full texts were
in English. The majority (84%) were single group
or comparative clinical trials. Of the 45 compara-
tive studies, 41 (91%) did not state in the available
information that the control was an active com-
parator, and so this was designated to be a “No
tapping” comparator. Active comparison interven-
tions included autogenic relaxation, ngerhold
relaxation technique, music or singing, meditative
walking or a teaching intervention.
4Energy Psychology 14:1 • May 2022 Tapping Research around the World
Table 2 shows the study modalities, settings,
target issues, and whether clinical benet was
reported.
The SEFT modality was reported for 53%
of the studies; remaining studies were of EFT.
There were no TFT (Thought Field Therapy) stud-
ies found.
The most frequent primary target issues were
the psychological issues of anxiety (30%), depres-
sion (15%), and the medical issue of hypertension
(11%). Participants included medical or psychiat-
ric patients (anxiety and depression being the most
frequent). Other groups included prisoners, those
employed, those with substance abuse, and even
a population described as “introverted and extro-
verted personality types.” The population of par-
ticipants drew from many ages including children,
university students, and the elderly.
Considering the clinical trials (single group or
comparative), 84% stated in the abstract that there
was a clinical benet of tapping. Most studies had
small sample sizes, and of the 30 cohort pre/post
studies reporting a sample size in their abstract,
21 (70%) had less than 30 participants (range
5–23) while 9 (30%) had 30 or more (range
30–97). Of the 40 comparative studies (including
RCTs) reporting a sample size in their abstract,
35 (87.5%) had less than 60 participants allowing
approximately 30 per group (range 7–52) while
only 5 (12.5%) had 60 or more (range 60–100).
Table 1. Study Characteristics
Total N %
Country 91
Indonesia 65 71.4%
Korea 7 7.7%
India 5 5.5%
China 2 2.2%
Iran 2 2.2%
Malaysia 2 2.2%
Other* 7 7.7%
Unclear 1 1.1%
English availability 91
Title only 4 4.4%
Title & abstract 70 76.9%
Full text 17 18.7%
Type of Study 91
Literature review 5 5.5%
Case series or case study 6 6.6%
Qualitative 4 4.4%
Cohort pre/post 31 34.1%
Comparative clinical trial** 45 49.5%
Note: *One paper (1.1%) was found for each of: Colombia,
Gaza, Germany, Pakistan, Spain, Turkey, and Australia.
**Comparative (controlled) trials may have been randomized
and this was not always clear from abstract.
Table 2. Study Clinical Characteristics
Total N %
Treatment Modality
EFT 43 46.7%
SEFT 49 53.3%
Study Treatment Setting
Medical 36 39.1%
Community 14 15.2%
Educational 11 12.0%
Forensic 3 3.3%
Unclear 23 25.0%
N/A (review article) 5 5.4%
Target issue
Anxiety 27 29.7%
Depression 14 15.4%
Hypertension 10 11.0%
Pain 8 8.8%
Quality of life 7 7.7%
Aggressiveness 3 3.3%
Negative emotions 4 4.4%
Insomnia 3 3.3%
Cognition 2 2.2%
Fatigue 2 2.2%
PTSD symptoms 2 2.2%
Schizophrenia symptoms 2 2.2%
Smoking 2 2.2%
Other* 5 5.5%
Clinical benet (in clinical studies)**
Yes 64 84.2%
Between groups nonsignicant 4 5.3%
Unclear 8 10.5%
Note: *Other includes “any condition” (review study), family
functioning, spiritual perception, hypertension, blood sugar,
and “qualitative experience of EFT.” **For the 79 studies
reporting trial (single cohort, comparative, randomized trial).
5
Tapping Research around the World Energy Psychology 14:1 • May 2022
Explorations were conducted of the feasibil-
ity of systematic searching using a web-based
search engine, Google Scholar (GS). A search for
these same terms (as of November 19, 2021) iden-
tied 7,890 scholarly papers. GS allows search by
several identied languages, and of these, 5,670
were published in English and 778 had other
identied language of: German (180), Spanish
(155), French (154), Japanese (55), Korean (54),
Portuguese (47), Dutch (38), Italian (38), Turkish
(34), Chinese (16), or Polish (7). From an inspec-
tion of titles and abstracts for several European
languages, most identied papers were discus-
sions of tapping protocols and their relevance
in local clinical practice, and not reports of new
research. None of the Dutch papers were relevant
to our exploration.
As it is not possible in Google Scholar to
identify papers excluding specic languages,
although we can assume that there are approxi-
mately 1,420 in another non-English language, it
is not possible to identify a list of those for more
specic screening.
Conducting a GS search for “spiritual emo-
tional freedom technique” yielded 926 results and
limiting to English yielded 224 results. A visual
inspection of the English language papers showed
that there are additional studies documenting the
eectiveness of SEFT, most of which originated
in Indonesia.
Discussion
We describe here a set of 91 research stud-
ies not previously part of the Western literature
evidence base for acupoint tapping therapies and
have identied the potential existence of a large
number of additional studies in additional coun-
tries. Beyond the research discovered informally,
an EBSCO database search conrmed that very
few of these were included in the standard indexed
databases.
The studies include both EFT and Spiritual
EFT modalities in a wide range of countries with
Asian countries and Indonesia particularly being
the most frequent. The research was mostly (84%)
single group or comparative trials, and for most,
only title and abstract were available in English.
Compared to the Western body of evi-
dence, these studies considered similar target
issues in some regards, with the most frequently
addressed issues being anxiety and depression,
both considered to meet criteria for being evi-
dence based (Feinstein, 2021). Medical issues
and settings were well represented in this body
of research, with medical being the most frequent
setting type, and medical issues (e.g., hypertension
or women’s health) a frequent target. This is in
contrast to the Western body of meridian tapping
research which focuses primarily on psychologi-
cal issues. Most comparative studies only stated in
the abstract that they had a control group, and this
was assumed to be a “no tapping” comparator for
our summary. Similarly, a high proportion (84%)
stated there was a clinical benet.
A high proportion of the research found was
conducted in Indonesia and used an EFT variation
called “Spiritual Emotional Freedom Technique”
(SEFT), developed by Ahmad Faiz Zainuddin,
which carries a religious connotation and refers to
combining tapping acupoint points with reciting
verses from the Quran and surrendering to the Will
of Allah. Considering the 66 Indonesian studies,
45 used the Spiritual EFT modality; SEFT studies
were also found in India, Malaysia, and Spain for
a total of 49 SEFT studies. Adding spirituality to
healing is consistent with an Indonesian empha-
sis on spirituality in other aspects of society; for
example, citizens are required to specify their
religious aliation on identication cards. Thus,
SEFT is a psychospiritual as well as a psychosen-
sory technique.
This exploration of local or regional scien-
tic research on acupoint tapping was challeng-
ing. Local and regional scientic journals are not
indexed in the international databases, which have
quite strict inclusion criteria. Journal editors aim-
ing to be included in such a database submit a
formal application providing supporting evidence
that is reviewed by scientic committees consid-
ering quality of the scientic content, principles
of publication ethics, and author consent, and
including a peer review process. Criteria include
the research impact measured as number of cita-
tions within the major databases, which is dicult
to meet without being indexed and constitutes a
“Catch-22” (Bordons & Gomez, 2004). Addition-
ally, regional journals are often published primar-
ily in the local language of the medical community,
and even when included in the indexed databases,
English full text may not be available. Standard
practice in systematic searching is to exclude
non-English papers, and such exclusion is consid-
ered to have no impact on the nal conclusions
6Energy Psychology 14:1 • May 2022 Tapping Research around the World
(Jackson & Kuriyama, 2019). A review of
250 systematic reviews for traditional medical
topics found that only 22% included any non-
English papers, and in those, the non-English
papers formed 2% of the total evidence base
(Jackson & Kuriyama, 2019). Meta-analyses and
systematic reviews investigating the eect on
the conclusions of excluding publications in lan-
guages other than English found no evidence of
systematic bias in the results. (Dobrescu et al.,
2021; Morrison et al., 2012).
Strengths and Limitations
This paper has identied that a body of
research on the eectiveness of tapping protocols
exists outside of and potentially larger than the
(primarily Western) previously known research.
These studies relate to local medical and psycho-
logical practice in Asian countries and regional
academic journals. Although for most papers only
abstract information was available, 85% of stud-
ies reported a clinical benet of the tapping pro-
tocol for a variety of target issues, populations,
and settings. Similar to other EFT research, most
studies used relatively small sample sizes of 30
or fewer.
Strengths of these studies include the follow-
ing: most of the studies were conducted at clinics,
hospitals, and/or universities. In addition to the
common psychological issues of anxiety, depres-
sion, stress, and PTSD, research studies explored
EP eectiveness for addictions, aggression, burn-
out, self-acceptance, learning concentration,
schizophrenia, and overall mental health. Many
documented the eectiveness of acupoint tapping
for medical conditions (e.g., diabetes, fatigue,
hypertension, insomnia, and menstrual pain).
Some documented eectiveness for psychological
or medical conditions in specic populations (e.g.,
children, people with cancer, coronary heart dis-
ease, chronic kidney disease, drug addicts, elderly,
female university students, HIV/AIDS, hemodi-
alysis patients, pregnant women, prisoners, pul-
monary tuberculosis, stroke patients, and women
with breast cancer) Finally, these studies provide
a valuable perspective on how acupoint tapping is
being used around the world in real-life settings.
A major limitation of this review is that full
English text was available for few research papers.
For the majority of papers only the title and
abstract were in English. Therefore, classications
of the major characteristics were not always
present, and assumptions were used from brief
statements. For example, whether a control was a
wait list or no intervention, any follow-up or mag-
nitude of eects were often not known without the
full English text.
Another limitation is that we describe stud-
ies identied from an informal search and a few
additional ones found using a systematic search
process of 22 databases in EBSCO, but not includ-
ing SCOPUS, another possibly relevant database.
We found that although a large body of potential
additional research studies exists, it was beyond
the scope of this review to screen the 7,890 cita-
tions in GS to identify research papers without
the capabilities to remove duplicates and build a
search strategy in the ways that the standard data-
bases allow.
Based on website searches using GS, we
found a large additional set of studies utiliz-
ing EFT and SEFT as interventions, with a large
research base in Indonesia. (These research stud-
ies from Indonesia are potentially larger than those
in all other countries combined!) However, since
these are not represented in major publications
databases, and Indonesian language studies are
not indexed in Google Scholar, screening of the
full set of potential results was beyond the scope
of this exploration.
These limitations make it dicult to general-
ize the ndings of this review to understand the
full evidence outside the Western evidence base.
Additional searching using GS with the large
number of papers found using keywords would
supplement this research set, even though GS
lacks standard capabilities found in the major
databases to conduct this search, which would
therefore make this challenging.
Conclusion
Interest in EFT and EFT research continues to
proliferate organically throughout the world. The
current study used a categorical review process to
examine the research evidence for cross cultural
ecacy of EFT and SEFT. It identied a large
body of previously unknown research across a
wide demographic range, with varied populations
receiving benet. As therapeutic interventions,
EFT and SEFT show clinical value as cost-
eective, non-pharmaceutical treatments for both
psychological and some medical conditions, in
a wide range of settings and demographics, in a
large collection of targeted issues.
7
Tapping Research around the World Energy Psychology 14:1 • May 2022
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8Energy Psychology 14:1 • May 2022 Tapping Research around the World
Appendix A: Table of Included Studies
Ref
#
Author, Year Country English
Available
Study Type EP
Modality
Comparator Setting Type Population Target Issue Sample
Size
1 Wati et al., 2021 Indonesia Full text Comparative study EFT No tapping Medical Chronic kidney disease Fatigue 19
2 Altuntas et al., 2020 Turkey Title & abstract Qualitative EFT N/A unclear Women Other 21
3 Ardan et al., 2020 Indonesia Title & abstract Cohort pre/post SEFT None unclear HIV/AIDS adults Depression 16
4 Asmawati et al., 2020 Indonesia Full text Cohort pre/post SEFT None Community NAPZA residents Anxiety 18
5 Dewi & Fitri, 2020 Indonesia Title & abstract Qualitative SEFT N/A Forensic Prisoners Depression 10
6 Dewi et al., 2020 Indonesia Full text Comparative study EFT No tapping Medical Post-stroke patients QOL 46
7 Fachrin et al., 2020 Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study SEFT No tapping Community Employed Fatigue 38
8 Fitri, 2020 Indonesia Title & abstract RCT EFT No tapping Community Elderly Anxiety 20
9 Isnadiya et al., 2020 Indonesia Title & abstract RCT EFT No tapping Medical Patients undergoing
percutaneous coronary
intervention
Anxiety 24
10 Lataima et al., 2020 Indonesia Full text Literature review EFT N/A N/A N/A Anxiety 11
11 Muliani et al., 2020 Indonesia Title & abstract Cohort pre/post EFT None Medical Psychiatric patients Aggressiveness 19
12 Permatasari et al.,
2020
Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study SEFT No tapping Medical Pregnant women with
hypertension
Hypertension 15
13 Rahmadanti &
Widyarini, 2020
Indonesia Title & abstract Cohort pre/post EFT None Community Victims of violence Negative
emotions
11
14 Setiyowati & Rahman,
2020
Indonesia Title & abstract Case study SEFT N/A Medical unclear Anxiety 1
15 Susanto, 2020 Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study SEFT No tapping Medical Patients Pain 36
16 Trejos Parra et al.,
2020
Colombia Full text Cohort pre/post EFT None Community Children with abuse-
related PTSD
PTSD
symptoms
37
17 Aftrinanto et al., 2019 Indonesia Title & abstract Cohort pre/post SEFT None unclear Women QOL 6
18 Ali & Loona, 2019 Pakistan Full text Cohort pre/post EFT None Educational Female university
students
Anxiety 70
19 Ardan et al., 2019 Indonesia Full text RCT SEFT No tapping Medical People living with
HIV/AIDS
Depression 32
20 Begré, 2019 Germany Title & abstract Literature review EFT N/A N/A N/A Anxiety N/A
21 Fatmasari et al., 2019 Malaysia Title & abstract Cohort pre/post SEFT None unclear Hypertensive patients Anxiety 5
9
Tapping Research around the World Energy Psychology 14:1 • May 2022
22 Hidayatullah et al.,
2019
Indonesia Title & abstract RCT SEFT No tapping Educational Introverted and
extroverted students
Anxiety 36
23 Isworo et al., 2019 Indonesia Title & abstract RCT EFT No tapping Medical Hypertensive patients
on antihypertensive
medication
Hypertension 32
24 Krishnamurthy &
Sharma, 2019
India Title & abstract RCT EFT No tapping Medical Patients with depression Depression 10
25 Lina et al., 2019 Indonesia Title & abstract RCT SEFT Autogenic
relaxation
Medical Hemodialysis patients Anxiety unclear
26 Lismayanti &
Hidayatulloh, 2019
Indonesia Title & abstract RCT SEFT No tapping unclear Hypertensive patients Hypertension 30
27 Liu et al., 2019 China Title & abstract RCT EFT No tapping unclear Elderly patients with
coronary heart disease
Depression 52
28 Marwing, 2019 Indonesia Title & abstract Cohort pre/post SEFT None Community Adolescents being
fostered
Aggressiveness 16
29 Prabowo, 2019 Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study SEFT No tapping Medical Preoperative adults Anxiety 60
30 Prabowo et al., 2019 Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study SEFT No tapping unclear Congestive heart failure Anxiety 40
31 Rosyanti et al., 2019 India Full text Comparative study SEFT No tapping unclear Adults with schizophrenia Schizophrenia
symptoms
20
32 Sonhaji &
Lekatompessy, 2019
India Title & abstract Comparative study SEFT Singing Community Elderly Hypertension unclear
33 Susilowati et al., 2019 India Title Literature review SEFT N/A N/A N/A Anxiety na
34 Warni & Hayana, 2019 Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study SEFT No tapping Community Adults Hypertension 64
35 Wati et al., 2019 Indonesia Full text Comparative study EFT No tapping Medical Nurses Negative
emotions
38
36 Afriyanti & Wenni,
2018
Indonesia Full text Cohort pre/post SEFT None Medical Women with breast cancerDepression 33
37 Hamidiyah & Jannah,
2018
Indonesia Title & abstract Cohort pre/post SEFT None Medical Females with
dysmenorrhea
Pain 10
38 Huda & Alvita, 2018 Indonesia Full text Comparative study SEFT No tapping unclear Hypertensives Hypertension 33
39 Kasron, 2018 Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study SEFT Progressive
muscle
relaxation
unclear Hypertensives Insomnia 32
(Continued)
10 Energy Psychology 14:1 • May 2022 Tapping Research around the World
Ref
#
Author, Year Country English
Available
Study Type EP
Modality
Comparator Setting Type Population Target Issue Sample
Size
40 Khoeriyah et al., 2018 Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study EFT No tapping Forensic Adolescent prisoners Negative
emotions
32
41 Komang et al., 2018 Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study EFT No tapping Educational Adolescents Cognition 30
42 Lismayanti, 2018 Indonesia Full text Cohort pre/post SEFT None unclear Adults < 65 Hypertension 30
43 Madoni et al., 2018 Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study EFT Group
counselling
with systematic
desensitization
Educational Students Anxiety 16
44 Mardjan et al., 2018 Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study EFT No tapping unclear Pregnant adolescents Anxiety unclear
45 Ma’rifah et al., 2018 Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study SEFT Fingerhold
relaxation
technique
Medical Mothers Pain 45
46 Navianti et al., 2018 Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study EFT No tapping Medical Patients giving blood Anxiety 65
47 Novitriani & Hidayati,
2018
Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study SEFT No tapping Forensic Female prisoners QOL 31
48 Patriyani & Rahayu,
2018
Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study SEFT No tapping Medical Type 2 diabetics Other 100
49 Puspita, 2018 Indonesia Title & abstract Cohort pre/post SEFT None Educational Young women Pain 97
50 Rosyanti et al., 2018 Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study SEFT No tapping Medical People living with
schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
symptoms
7
51 Sahlia et al., 2018 Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study EFT No tapping unclear People with hypertension Depression 20
52 Etika et al., 2017 Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study SEFT Keroncong
music
Medical Elderly Depression 20
53 Jhansi et al., 2017 unclear Title & abstract Comparative study EFT No tapping unclear unclear Anxiety unclear
54 Kartikasari et al., 2017 Indonesia Title & abstract Cohort pre/post EFT None unclear Elderly Insomnia 23
55 Kim, 2017 Korea Title Case study EFT N/A unclear unclear QOL 1
56 Kusnanto et al., 2017 Indonesia Full text Cohort pre/post SEFT None unclear People with tuberculosis QOL 22
57 Lee et al., 2017 Korea Title & abstract Literature review EFT N/A N/A N/A Anxiety N/A
58 Liu et al., 2017 China Title & abstract Cohort pre/post EFT None Medical People with cancer Depression unclear
59 Soto-Vasquez &
Alvarado-García, 2017
Spain Title & abstract Comparative study EFT No tapping Educational University students Anxiety 48
11
Tapping Research around the World Energy Psychology 14:1 • May 2022
60 Sutiyarsih & Sri, 2017 Indonesia Title & abstract Cohort pre/post EFT None unclear Geriatric Depression 30
61 Yuswinda, 2017 Indonesia Title & abstract Cohort pre/post SEFT None Medical Preop Patients Anxiety 8
62 Faridah, 2016 Indonesia Title & abstract RCT SEFT No tapping Medical Blood pressure Other 26
63 Kim et al., 2016 Korea Title & abstract Comparative study EFT Meditative walk Community Menopausal women QOL 26
64 Ningsih et al., 2016 Malaysia Title & abstract Comparative study EFT No tapping Medical Breast cancer patients Anxiety 30
65 Sastra & Sari, 2016 Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study EFT No tapping Educational Adolescents Pain 12
66 Wahyuliarmy, 2016 Indonesia Title & abstract Case study SEFT N/A Community 63 -year-olds Pain 1
67 Abdi & Abolmaali,
2015
Iran Title & abstract Comparative study EFT No tapping Community Single mothers Aggressiveness 30
68 Astuti et al., 2015 Indonesia Title & abstract Cohort pre/post SEFT None Medical Women with HIV Depression 30
69 Banerjee, 2015 India Full text Qualitative EFT N/A Educational University students Depression 30
70 Etika & Wijaya, 2015 Indonesia Title & abstract Cohort pre/post SEFT None Educational Students of SMAN 5
Kediri City
Smoking 14
71 Ghamsari & Lavasani,
2015
Iran Title & abstract Comparative study EFT No tapping Medical Pregnant women Anxiety 30
72 Hermanwan et al.,
2015
Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study EFT No tapping Educational Students Cognition unclear
73 Kartikodaru et al.,
2015
Indonesia Title & abstract Cohort pre/post SEFT None Medical Receiving chemotherapy Anxiety 17
74 Putra, 2015 Indonesia Title & abstract Case Study SEFT N/A Medical Parents of sexually abused
child
Anxiety 1
75 Rofacky & Aini,
2015
Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study SEFT No tapping unclear Hypertensives Hypertension 30
76 Susanti, 2015 Indonesia Title & abstract Cohort pre/post SEFT None Medical Patients with hypertensionHypertension 17
77 Wijaya, 2015 Indonesia Title & abstract Cohort pre/post SEFT None unclear Elderly patients with
hypertension
Hypertension 16
78 Desmaniarti & Avianti,
2014
Indonesia Title & abstract RCT SEFT No tapping Medical Patients with cervical
cancer
Anxiety 68
79 Latifah & Ramawati,
2014
Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study EFT None Medical Women post Caesarian
section
Pain 30
80 Lee et al., 2014 Korea Title Case series EFT N/A unclear unclear Anxiety unclear
(Continued)
12 Energy Psychology 14:1 • May 2022 Tapping Research around the World
Ref
#
Author, Year Country English
Available
Study Type EP
Modality
Comparator Setting Type Population Target Issue Sample
Size
81 MacKinnon, 2014 Australia Full text Case study EFT N/A Community People with trauma
in family therapy
Other 2
82 Shari et al., 2014 Indonesia Title & abstract Cohort pre/post EFT None Medical Coronary patients Anxiety 30
83 Song et al., 2014 Korea Title Qualitative EFT N/A unclear Hwa-byung (suppressed
anger)
Negative
emotions
13
84 Alwan & Nawajha,
2013
Gaza Full text Comparative study EFT No tapping Community Diabetic persons QOL 36
85 Bakara et al., 2013 Indonesia Title & abstract Comparative study SEFT No tapping Medical Patients with coronary
disease
Depression 42
86 Kim et al., 2013 Korea Title & abstract Literature review EFT N/A N/A N/A Other N/A
87 Mariyati & Habibah,
2013
Indonesia Title & abstract Cohort pre/post SEFT None Educational Junior high school
students
Smoking 12
88 Satri & Sadif, 2013 Indonesia Full text Cohort pre/post SEFT None Medical Renal hemodialysis
patients
Depression 12
89 Ulfa, 2013 Indonesia Title & abstract RCT SEFT No tapping unclear Adolescent survivors
of volcanic eruption
PTSD
symptoms
22
90 Lee et al., 2011 Korea Title & abstract Cohort pre/post EFT None Community Elderly women Insomnia 10
91 Hakam et al., 2009 Indonesia Title & abstract Cohort pre/post SEFT None Medical Cancer patients Pain 20
Note: NAPZA = narcotics, psychotropics, and other addictive substances; QOL = quality of life.
13
Tapping Research around the World Energy Psychology 14:1 • May 2022
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15
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