The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate stress biomarkers, subjective stress levels, and cognitive function in medical students. The main question\[s\] it aims to answer are: Does regular osteopathic manipulative treatment affect stress in medical students? Does regular osteopathic manipulative treatment affect cognitive function in medical students? Participants will be split into two groups, control and treatment, and undergo a designated protocol for six weeks. The treatment protocol will include weekly sessions of three OMT techniques: paraspinal inhibition, rib raising, and condylar decompression. Concurrently, participants' salivary cortisol levels will be collected weekly and analyzed using an Invitrogen ELISA Immunoassay Kit. Additionally, cognitive function will be assessed weekly via Lumosity, while stress levels are gauged using the College Student Stress Scale (CSSS) survey. Researchers will compare one cohort of medical students who receive weekly OMT and another cohort of medical students who have weekly check-ins without OMT to see if OMT can affect changes in stress biomarkers, subjective stress scales, and cognitive function.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
10
Individuals in the experimental cohort will undergo a systematic osteopathic manipulative treatment protocol encompassing paraspinal inhibition, rib raising, and condylar decompression techniques.
Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine - Harlem
New York, New York, United States
Weekly Cortisol Level
Salivary Cortisol as measured in an ELISA Immunoassay
Time frame: Weekly, over the course of 8 week study
College Student Subjective Stress Survey (CSSS) Numerical Score
Numerical Score collected from the College Student Subjective Stress Survey, a 10-item survey investigating occurrence of stressors over the course of a week, with each item being rated from 1 (Never) to 5 (Very Often). A lower score reflects lower perceived stress while a higher score reflects higher perceived stress.
Time frame: Weekly, over the course of 8 week study
LPI
Learning Performance Index Metric from Lumosity
Time frame: Weekly, over the course of 8 week study
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