View source for Tapas Acupressure Technique

{{Infobox Alternative Medicine | claims = Applying pressure to meridian points on the body, derived from [[acupuncture]], can release energy blockages that cause negative emotions.|topics = [[Acupuncture]], [[Acupressure]] |origyear = 1993 | origprop = [[Tapas Fleming]]| seealso=[[Thought Field Therapy]], [[Emotional Freedom Techniques]] | laterprop = }}

'''Tapas Acupressure Technique''' (or '''TAT''') is a controversial [[Complementary and alternative medicine|complementary]] therapy promoted to clear negative emotions and past traumas. Though the full technique was invented in 1993 by Tapas Fleming, a licensed [[Acupuncture|acupuncturist]] in California, TAT incorporates elements of and builds on other [[acupressure]] techniques. Like other [[Energy medicine|energy therapies]], TAT relies on a [[putative energy]] for which no scientific basis has been found and no biophysical means of action determined.<ref name="NCCAM">{{cite web | url=http://nccam.nih.gov/health/backgrounds/energymed.htm | title=Energy Medicine Overview | author=The 'National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine |date=October 13 2006 }}</ref><ref name="Devilly"/>

==History==
Invented in 1993 by Ms. Tapas Fleming, a California licensed acupuncturist, TAT is marketed as "an easy process for ending traumatic stress, reducing allergic reactions, and freeing yourself of negative beliefs."  The underlying idea claims that trauma leads to a blockage of the natural flow a [[Energy (spirituality)|putative energy]]. Practitioners of TAT claim that application of light pressure to four areas (inner corner of both eyes, one-half-inch above the space between the eyebrows, and the back of head) while placing attention on a series of steps releases this blockage and allows for healing.

== Scientific study ==
A preliminary unblinded feasibility study comparing Tapas Acupressure Technique to [[Qigong]] or self-directed support for weight loss maintenance suggested that TAT might outperform the other methods studied. The results were not [[Statistical significance|statistically significant]].<ref name='Mist_FACT'> {{cite journal|title=Phase I/II randomized trial of Tapas Acupressure for weightloss maintenance|journal=Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies|date=2005|first=S.|last=Mist|coauthors=C. Elder, M. Aikin, C Ritenbaugh|volume=10|issue=|pages=38–9|id= |url=http://www.medicinescomplete.com/journals/fact/current/fact1005a13a60.htm|format=|accessdate=2008-02-09|doi=10.1111/j.2042-7166.2005.tb00508.x }}</ref><ref name='GWS2009'>{{cite news | first=Greg | last=Wahl-Stephens | coauthors= |authorlink= | title=$2.5 billion spent, no alternative cures found | date=2009-06-10 | publisher=MSNBC | url =http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31190909/from/ET/ | work = | pages = | accessdate = 2009-06-11 | language = }}</ref> A 500-member randomized trial of TAT versus standard weightloss management intervention funded by the [[National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine|NCCAM]] is slated for completion in 2011.<ref name='Elder'> {{cite web|url=http://crisp.cit.nih.gov/crisp/CRISP_LIB.getdoc?textkey=7316164&p_grant_num=1R01AT003928-01A1&p_query=&ticket=54364940&p_audit_session_id=285837869&p_keywords= |title=Randomized Trial of Tapas Acupressure Technique for Weightloss Maintenance |accessdate=2008-02-11 |last=Elder |first=Charles R. }}</ref>

No scientifically plausible method of action is proposed for Tapas Acupressure Technique, instead relying on unvalidated [[putative energy]] and [[Meridian (Chinese medicine)|meridian]]s with no identified biophysical or histological basis. A 2005 review of so-called "[[Power Therapies]]" concluded that TAT and similar techniques "offered no new scientifically valid theories of action, show only non-specific efficacy, show no evidence that they offer substantive improvements to extant psychiatric care, yet display many characteristics consistent with [[pseudoscience]]."<ref name="Devilly">{{cite journal | title=Power Therapies and possible threats to the science of psychology and psychiatry | author=Grant J. Devilly | url=http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1440-1614.2005.01601.x | journal=Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry | year=2005 |volume=39 | pages=437–445 | doi=10.1111/j.1440-1614.2005.01601.x | pmid=15943644 | issue=6}}</ref> TAT also conforms to the "nine practices of pseudoscience" as identified by AR Pratkins.<ref name="Pratkins">{{cite web | author=AR Pratkins | title=How to sell a pseudoscience | url=http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/pratkanis.htm}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Emotional Freedom Technique]]
*[[Thought Field Therapy]]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Manipulative therapy]]
[[Category:Energy therapies]]

[[nl:Tapas Acupressure Technique]]
[[Category:2Fix]]