Cancer Medicine· 2026Q1
The Effect of Emotional Freedom Techniques on Death Anxiety and Cancer‐Related Anxiety in Patients Undergoing Oncological Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Trial
- 0citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) significantly reduced cancer-related anxiety, death anxiety, and subjective distress in oncological surgery patients by 3 days post-intervention compared to standard care.
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Key points
- EFT applied daily for 3 days significantly reduced cancer-related anxiety (p < 0.05).
- EFT significantly reduced death anxiety (p < 0.05).
- EFT significantly reduced subjective distress scores (p < 0.001).
- The intervention group showed lower anxiety and distress scores compared to the control group immediately post-intervention (p < 0.05).
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
ABSTRACT This study was conducted to investigate the effect of emotional freedom techniques (EFT) on death anxiety in patients experiencing postsurgery cancer‐related anxiety. A total of 120 oncological surgical patients were randomly allocated to either the intervention group ( n = 60) or the control group ( n = 60). Data were collected from February 2025 to September 2025 as a randomized controlled trial. While EFT (once a day, for 3 days) was applied to the patients in the intervention group in addition to the clinical procedure, the control group only followed the clinical procedure without any intervention. Following EFT, participants in the intervention group showed statistically significant reductions in both cancer‐related anxiety and death anxiety scores ( p < 0.001). The decrease in subjective distress scores in the intervention group after EFT was found to be significant ( p < 0.001). When the intervention and control groups were compared based on their final test scores, the intervention group had lower levels of cancer‐related anxiety, death anxiety, and subjective distress ( p < 0.05). Clinical EFT application demonstrated immediate postintervention efficacy in reducing death anxiety, cancer‐related anxiety, and subjective distress. However, due to the absence of a long‐term follow‐up period, these findings reflect acute psychological stabilization.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Cancer Medicine, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Complementary and alternative medicine
Complementary and alternative medicineMedicine