Auricular Acupuncture for Exam Anxiety in Medical Students

Auricular Acupuncture for Exam Anxiety in Medical Students: A Randomized Crossover Investigation

Status

Completed

Phases

Phase 2

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT02920164

Acronym

AAAnx

Enrollment

Registered

2016-09-30

Start date

2012-04-30

Completion date

2012-07-31

Last updated

2016-09-30

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Anxiety

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.

Interventions

DEVICEAuricular acupuncture

Auricular acupuncture with indwelling permanent needles

DEVICEPlacebo acupuncture

Placebo acupuncture with placebo needles

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

CROSSOVER

Primary purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

TRIPLE (Subject, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

19 Years to 35 Years

Healthy volunteers

Yes

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

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Intensity of anxiety	2 days	State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory

Secondary

Measure	Time frame
heart rate	1 day
blood pressure	1 day

Countries

Germany

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026