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

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT03093584

Acronym

AA_EW_Anxi

Enrollment

Registered

2017-03-28

Start date

2014-04-30

Completion date

2014-07-31

Last updated

2017-03-29

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) 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

Interventions

DEVICEAuricular acupuncture

Auricular acupuncture with indwelling fixed auricular acupuncture needles

BEHAVIORALExpressive writing

Expressive writing is a standard psychological method in treatment of exam anxiety

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. 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

Design outcomes

Primary

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

Secondary

Measure	Time frame	Description
salivary alpha-amylase	1 day	enzymatic activity of salivary alpha-amylase
heart rate	1 day	heart rate
blood pressure	1 day	blood pressure

Outcome results

None listed

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