Auricular Acupuncture for Exam Anxiety in Medical Students

Phase 2

Completed

• Conditions: Anxiety
• Interventions: Device: Auricular acupuncture; Device: Placebo acupuncture

• Registration Number: NCT02920164
• Lead Sponsor: University Medicine Greifswald

Brief Summary

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.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2012-04
• Primary Completion: 2012-07
• Study Completion: 2012-07
• Status Verified: 2016-09
• Study First Submitted: 2016-09-28
• Study First Submitted QC: 2016-09-29
• Last Update Submitted: 2016-09-29
• Study First Posted: 2016-09-30
• Last Update Posted: 2016-09-30

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 44

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

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: CROSSOVER

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Auricular acupuncture	Auricular acupuncture	Auricular acupuncture with indwelling fixed auricular acupuncture needles
Placebo acupuncture	Placebo acupuncture	Placebo acupuncture with placebo fixed "needles"

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Intensity of anxiety	2 days	State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
heart rate	1 day
blood pressure	1 day

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University Medicine of Greifswald; 🇩🇪 Greifswald, Germany