Auricular Acupuncture for Exam Anxiety in Medical Students

Phase 2CompletedNCT02920164

University Medicine Greifswald44 enrolled

Overview

Title of the study: Auricular acupuncture (AA) for pre-exam anxiety: A blinded randomized crossover study on healthy volunteers Study period: 04/2012 - 07/2012 Institution: Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine University Medicine of Greifswald Aim of the study: To investigate the anxiolytic effect of auricular acupuncture (AA) in comparison to placebo acupuncture and no intervention during oral exams in anatomy at the University of Greifswald Design: Prospective blinded randomized crossover trial Intervention: 1. AA using indwelling fixed needles, retained 24 h in situ 2. AA using placebo needles Number of volunteers: N = 40 Outcome measures: Anxiety level, Heart rate, blood pressure.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

TRIPLE

Enrollment

Conditions

Anxiety

Interventions

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 19 YearsMax age: 35 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: 1. Medical students at the University of Greifswald 2. Going to take part in oral exams of human anatomy 3. Participants without previous anxiolytic medication 4. Participants without any experiences with acupuncture 5. Patients who have given written informed consent Exclusion Criteria: 1. Local auricular skin infection 2. Pregnant or lactating women 3. Participants with prosthetic or damaged cardiac valves, intracardiac and intravascular shunts, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and mitral valve prolapse (risk of bacterial endocarditis according to guidelines of AHA) 4. Participants who are unable to understand the consent form 5. History of psychiatric disease, alcohol and drug abuse

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Intensity of anxiety

State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory

Time frame: 2 days

Secondary Outcomes

heart rate

Time frame: 1 day

blood pressure