Food for Thought: A Randomised Controlled Trial of Emotional Freedom Techniques and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in the Treatment of Food Cravings

Abstract

Addressing the internal determinants of dysfunctional eating behaviours (e.g. food cravings) in the prevention and treatment of obesity has been increasingly recognised. This study compared Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for food cravings in adults who were overweight or obese (N = 83) in an 8-week intervention. Outcome data were collected at baseline, post-intervention, and at 6- and 12-months follow-up. Overall, EFT and CBT demonstrated comparable efficacy in reducing food cravings, one's responsiveness to food in the environment (power of food), and dietary restraint, with Cohen's effect size values suggesting moderate to high practical significance for both interventions. Results also revealed that both EFT and CBT are capable of producing treatment effects that are clinically meaningful, with reductions in food cravings, the power of food, and dietary restraint normalising to the scores of a non-clinical community sample. While reductions in BMI were not observed, the current study supports the suggestion that psychological interventions are beneficial for food cravings and both CBT and EFT could serve as vital adjunct tools in a multidisciplinary approach to managing obesity.

Evaluation of a multiprofessional, nonsurgical obesity treatment program: which parameters indicated life style changes and weight loss?

“…This again illustrates that focusing on emotion regulation skills in a standardized behavioural weight loss intervention may help in weight reduction in obese individuals and that adding emotional-eating specific strategies may not provide additional benefits in the short term. Similar findings were found by Stapleton et al (2016) [37] comparing an intervention in emotional freedom technique (EFT) with cognitive behavioral therapy. Also in this randomized controlled trial, both intervention groups had similar treatment effects regarding weight as well as psychological outcomes within a 12 months follow up.…”

An Initial Investigation of Neural Changes in Overweight Adults with Food Cravings after Emotional Freedom Techniques

“…While speculatively, the neural changes indicated in this pilot study appear to compare to the self-reported food craving decreases in the current trial as well as previous EFT and food craving trials [19][20][21][22]. The lack of engagement in homework activities reported by participants (addressed next) and the relative deactivation of the brain activity during the post scans while viewing high caloric food images, suggests a correlation worth examining in larger future trials.…”

“…Finally and worthy of note is that while the EFT participants were encouraged to engage in the technique outside sessions, and reminder messages were sent by the lead therapist between sessions every week. However, they typically did not do so via self-report and this was also indicated in previous trials [19][20][21][22]. A recent two year follow-up of an 8-week online intervention program for overweight or obese adults found participants' food craving, perceived power of food, dietary restraint capabilities and all psychological distress symptoms (i.e.…”

“…EFT has also been compared to a gold standard therapy. In an overweight/obese sample of adults, EFT and CBT demonstrated comparable efficacy in reducing food cravings, individuals' responsiveness to food in the environment (power of food), and dietary restraint, with Cohen's effect size values suggesting moderate to high practical significance for both interventions [22]. Significant decreases in anxiety and depression scores were also reported for subjects in both the EFT and CBT treatment groups, and these benefits were maintained at 12-month follow-up.…”

“…These results revealed that EFT was capable of producing treatment effects that were clinically meaningful and comparable to a gold standard approach. Notably, EFT lasted longer over time than CBT for improvements in food cravings and anxious symptomology and subjects' food cravings, power over food choices, and dieting mentality at the 12-month follow-up [21,22].…”