Published in a Peer Reviewed Journal: A Research Review of “Neurophysiological Indicators of EFT Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress”

by Patricia Carrington, Ph.D

When the ground breaking Wells et al. study on the use of EFT for small animal phobias was published in 2003 in a leading peer-reviewed journal (The Journal of Clinical Psychology, see reference at end of paper) this was a major happening in the field of energy psychology.  As one of the coauthors of the published paper on the Wells' research, I experienced firsthand the years of work that went into preparing the write-up of this research so that it could meet the strict standards of the professional journals.  It is therefore extremely gratifying to me to be able to report on some additional research on EFT that has now been published in a peer reviewed journal.  This time we see an article reporting research on the physiological effects of this technique as well as the psychological ones.

Doctors Paul G. Swingle and Lee Pulos. together with Mari K. Swingle, studied the effects of two sessions of EFT on nine people involved in motor vehicle accidents who were reporting traumatic stress associated with the accidents.  Psychological tests, clinical interviews and neurophysiological measurements were used to determine the effects of EFT on these accident victims before they learned EFT, and these measures were repeated after they had been treated with EFT.  The results were published in a peer reviewed journal, “Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine” (reference given at end of article) and I will summarize them here.

When the participants arrived at the office where they were to learn EFT, they were first given a series of psychological tests which included the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory, 10 items from the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and a 10 item questionnaire assessing the need to avoid driving and riding in a motor vehicle.  On the same visit they also received an eyes closed assessment of 19 brain locations (a “Brainmap”) that used the QEEG (Quantitative Electroencephalograph) to convert brain waves to quantitative values that reflect the frequency and amplitude of brain wave activity at various brain locations.  Normative values associated with these brain wave values have been established previously (Swingle, 2003), and based on them, the researchers were able to determine some of the effects of the EFT treatments on particular kinds of brain activity associated with specific subjective mental and physical states.

After being studied in the laboratory, the participants in the study received two sessions of EFT administered by Dr. Pulos in his office. They were taught the Long (original) Form of EFT, and the sessions were one hour long each.  Before receiving their EFT treatment, each participant had been asked to give an Intensity Rating (SUD’s level) indicating their level of distress when they thought about the motor accident in which they had been involved.  The SUD’s level consisted of a 10 point scale, with “1” representing no distress upon thinking about the accident, and “10” representing severe distress when thinking about it. 

The two EFT treatments occurred within 24 days of the initial physiological examination. Following the treatments, take-home treatment protocols were given to each participant for use during the duration of the research.  They were asked to practice 5 times a day for the first week, 3 times a day for the second week, and after that to treat themselves accordingly as their SUDs level and anxiety was reduced.

The participants responded very well to their EFT treatments. Before they were treated with EFT, their average SUD’s rating had been 8.3 when thinking about the accident.  However, after the second of the two treatments their average SUD’s rating was now 2.5.  This reduction in subjectively perceived stress was statistically significant at the p<.01 level, indicating a marked improvement in these accident victims’ distress ratings after receiving EFT treatment.

The participants were then re-assessed on a neurophysiological level between 70 and 160 days following their last EFT treatment for follow-up testing, and at that same time, the questionnaires administered before they had received EFT treatment were re-administered.  The percent change from negative to positive responses in the questionnaires from pretest to follow-up was significant at the <.05 level, indicating a positive change in stress level for the group as a whole.

These measurements also revealed an interesting discrepancy between the scores of the participants.  At follow-up, the group was roughly split in half with respect to their self-ratings as follows. Five of the participants had scores at this time indicating positive change (at the p<.005 level) from the time they were examined before they learned EFT, while 4 of the 9 participants showed negative or no change in self-rating (p=<.05) at the time of the follow-up assessment. Although all participants had shown a positive change immediately following the final EFT treatment (p <.001), that change did not hold up over time for the latter 4 participants. 

The results from the brain mapping analyses at follow-up corroborated the results found in the questionnaires.  When the brain wave data was analyzed with respect to brain indicators of depression, cognitive quiescence, and body quiescence, the percent change for the improved participants from their first (pre-EFT) brain measurements to the follow-up measurements 3 - 5 months later was 11.5%, while for the participants reporting no change or negative change the average percent change was –9.4%, a difference between groups that was significant at the p <.02 level.

Also impressive was the fact that for the improved group, the Theta/Beta ratio in the occipital region of the brain, a measure associated with beneficial mental quieting, was increased by 33.3% from pretreatment to follow-up, while for the group of participants not reporting improvement, the change was -32.2%, with a difference between these two groups that was significant at the p <.01 level.

In a similar manner, when studying the Theta/Sensory Motor Rhythm (SMR) ratio, the researchers found a marked difference between the improved and unimproved groups.  The SMR is frequently used as an index of bodily quiescence, and increasing the SMR can therefore often be an effective treatment for epilepsy.  The percent increase in SMR amplitude from pre-EFT to follow-up for the improved group was found to be 40%, while it was -71% for the participants who were not reporting improvement, a difference between groups that was significant at the p < .05 level.

The fact that the participants seemed to divide almost equally into one group who reported positive change and those who reported none or negative change, suggests that the degree of compliance to the at-home instructions for daily practice with EFT might have been a determining factor in these results.  Unfortunately, however, no assessment was made of participant compliance in this study, something which clearly must be an essential part of any future study in this area.

The interesting finding that there was a strong correspondence between subjective reports of improvement on the part of the participants and their respective brain wave patterns suggests that psychoneurological research can provide important data for understanding the processes involved in EFT.  We can hope that future investigations will shed even more light on this important finding.

Another question for future studies to address is whether the results obtained here are in fact due to the use of EFT for these trauma victims, or whether some of the improvement seen at follow-up 3 to 5 months later may simply have reflected a spontaneous recovery over time and would have happened regardless of whether or not they had learned EFT. This question can be easily addressed by adding a comparison group of accident victims in a future study, people who do not receive EFT treatment for their condition but are tested and retested at the same intervals.  Would these untreated people improve at all with just the passage of time?  This is not then a controlled study, however, clinical studies such as this are important in the field of medicine, and the fact that all of the participants showed clear cut improvement when they were retested 2 weeks after learning EFT (as indicated by subjective reports, brain wave readings were not taken at that time), strongly suggests that EFT did indeed have a very beneficial effect on them.

REFERENCES 

Swingle, P.G.., Pulos, L., and Swingle, M.K.  (2004) Neurophysiological indicators of EFT treatment of post-traumatic stress.  Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine, 15, l, 75-86.

Swingle, P.G. (2003, Summer) Potentiating Neurotherpay: Techniques for Stimulating the EEG. Paper presented at California Biofeedback Society.

Wells, S, Polglase, K., Andrews, H. B., Carrington, P., and Baker, A. H. (2003). Evaluation of a Meridian-Based Intervention Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), for Reducing Specific Phobias of Small Animals.  Journal of Clinical Psychology, 59 (9), 943-966.