Auricular Stimulation vs. Expressive Writing for Exam Anxiety (AA_EW_Anxi)

University Medicine Greifswald

Status: Completed

Conditions: Anxiety

Treatments: Device: Auricular acupuncture; Behavioral: Expressive writing

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03093584

BB 037/14

Details and patient eligibility

About

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

Enrollment: 37 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 19 to 35 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

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. Ability to express the thoughts and emotions ("expressive writing")
5. Written informed consent

Exclusion criteria

1. Recidivist alcoholics
2. Local auricular skin infection
3. Pregnant or lactating women
4. Participants with prosthetic or damaged cardiac valves, intracardiac and intravascular shunts, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and mitral valve prolaps (risk of bacterial endocarditis according to guidelines of AHA)
5. Participants who are unable to understand the consent form
6. History of psychiatric disease

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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37 participants in 3 patient groups

Auricular stimulation

Active Comparator group

Description:

Auricular acupuncture with indwelling fixed auricular acupuncture needles

Treatment:

Device: Auricular acupuncture

Expressive writing

Experimental group

Description:

Expressive writing - sharing the emotional expectations in front of forthcoming exam

Treatment:

Behavioral: Expressive writing

No intervention

No Intervention group

Description:

No intervention, just observation and monitoring of outcome measures