NCT03093584

Auricular Stimulation vs. Expressive Writing for Exam Anxiety

Auricular Acupuncture (AA) vs. Expressive Writing in Treatment of Pre-exam Anxiety - Randomised Crossover Study in Medical Students

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 37 (actual)
• Sponsor: University Medicine Greifswald · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 19 Years – 35 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Title of the study: Auricular acupuncture (AA) vs. expressive writing for pre-exam anxiety - a randomised crossover study Study period: 04 / 2014 - 07 / 2014 Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. T. Usichenko Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine University Medicine of Greifswald Aim of the study: To investigate the anxiolytic effect of AA vs. expressive writing and vs. no intervention in students, passing the oral exams in anatomy at the University of Greifswald Design: Prospective randomised crossover trial Interventions: 1. AA using indwelling fixed needles, retained 24 h in situ 2. Expressive writing Number of volunteers: N = 40 Healthy medical students at the University of Greifswald Participants of the anatomy exams in spring/summer 2014 Without previous anxiolytic, sedative and analgesic medication No pregnancy or lactating Informed consent Outcome measures: Anxiety level Heart rate, blood pressure Salivary α-amylase

Conditions

• Anxiety

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Auricular acupuncture	Auricular acupuncture with indwelling fixed auricular acupuncture needles
BEHAVIORAL	Expressive writing	Expressive writing is a standard psychological method in treatment of exam anxiety

Timeline

• Start date: 2014-04-01
• Primary completion: 2014-07-01
• Completion: 2014-07-01
• First posted: 2017-03-28
• Last updated: 2017-03-29