Skip to content

Stress, EEG, ECG, and Chiropractic

The Relationship Between Stress Scores, a Single-session of Chiropractic Care, Heart Rate Variability, and Electroencephalography Patterns

Status
Completed
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT05245409
Acronym
BLI
Enrollment
30
Registered
2022-02-18
Start date
2021-09-28
Completion date
2023-06-02
Last updated
2024-02-02

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

Conditions

Stress

Keywords

stress, chiropractic, EEG, HRV

Brief summary

The Life University Center for Chiropractic Research is conducting a study to better understand the relationship between subjective stress measures and brain patterns during resting state and an auditory oddball task. A secondary aim is to evaluate the impact of a single session of chiropractic care on the resting state and P300 time locked response after a one-week wait period. An additional outcome assessment for this study will be the recording of an electrocardiogram (ECG) of each participant that will be used to analyze their heart rate variability (HRV). Eligible individuals will receive a physical exam to ensure safety during all procedures. They will then sit for a 6-minute resting state EEG and an auditory oddball task. They will complete a series of questionnaires assessing stress. They will receive a chiropractic adjustment using a handheld instrument called an Activator. They will return one week later for a follow-up assessment consisting of the 6-minute resting state EEG, auditory oddball task, and the questionnaires assessing stress.

Interventions

OTHERChiropractic adjustment using an activator

Chiropractic adjustment using an activator

Sponsors

Life University
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 40 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

* Individuals between the ages of 18 and 40 * Individuals who can wear an EEG cap for 40 minutes * Individuals who can sit quietly for at least 15 minutes * Individuals who have not had a chiropractic adjustment within the last two weeks * Individuals who have not received any other interventions, such as osteopathic spinal manipulation, physical therapy rehabilitation or manipulation, massage, body movement therapies or acupuncture within the last 2 weeks.

Exclusion criteria

* Individuals who have been diagnosed with a serious mental disorder such as schizophrenia or major depressive disorder that could influence EEG results * Individuals who do not feel they can sit quietly with limited movement for roughly 15 minutes * Individuals who are on psychotropic medications (e.g. Benzodiazepine medications) that influence EEG readings (Benzodiazepine medications include but are not limited to: alprazolam, chlordiazepoxide, clobazam, clonazepam, clorazepate, diazepam, estazolam, flurazepam, lorazepam, midazolam, oxazepam, temazepam, triazolam, etc.) * Individuals with any injury or surgery to the skull in the last 6 months, or a history of trauma to the head such as a concussion or stroke * Individuals with a hearing impairment (due to the auditory stimulus recording being performed) * Individuals who are currently pregnant * Individuals with a current litigation related to a physical, health-related injury * Individuals with untreated diagnosed osteoporosis or articular instability, such as atlanto-axial instability * Individuals with a known heart condition that results in an aberrant ECG recording

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Electroencephalography Power spectrumBaseline (Pre)6 minutes of resting state EEG with eyes closed. 64 channels of EEG will be recorded. A fast Fourier transform will be computed to provide a power spectrum of frequencies 1-50.
Auditory oddball taskBaseline (Pre)Auditory oddball task with 200 common and 40 rare stimuli. P300 evoked related potential evaluated through capturing EEG.
Heart rate variability (HRV)Baseline (Pre)ECG recording will be used to evaluate HRV from R-R intervals.
Weekly Stress Inventory Short FormBaseline (Pre)25 questions. Likert scale: did not happen; happended but not successful; slightly stressful; mildly stressful; moderately stressful; stressful; very stressful; extremely stressful.
Hamilton Anxiety Rating ScaleBaseline (pre)14 questions. Likert scale: not true at all; rarely true; sometimes true; often true; true nearly all the time.
Connor Davidson Resilience Scale - 25baseline (pre)25 questions. Likert scale: not true at all; rarely true; sometimes true; often true; true nearly all the time.
Severity of Acute Stress Symptomsbaseline (pre)7 questions. Likert scale: never; almost never; sometimes; fairly often; very often.
Brief Resilience Scalebaseline (pre)6 questions. Likert scale: strongly disagree; disagree; neutral; agree; strongly agree
Daily Stress Scalebaseline (pre)6 questions. Numeric rating scale from 0-10. O indicating no stress and 10 indicating extremly stressful.

Countries

United States

Outcome results

None listed

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