Clinical trial NCT02142231: AcuTA: Acupuncture in Test Anxiety
Official title: Acupuncture Randomized Trial for Preventing Test Anxiety
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Test Anxiety
Experimental Setting (Trier Social Stress Test TSST)
Keywords: acupuncture
test anxiety
neuroenhancer
placebo
Lead sponsor: Goethe University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Ludwig-Maximilians - University of Munich
First posted: 2014-05-20
Enrollment: 25
Sex: MALE
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: Test anxiety is a well-known phenomenon in general population, but only few scientific advances have been made in order to fully understand and prevent this circumstance.

The number of students which use neuro enhancement to improve their performance and to prevent test anxiety, is increasing. A US-survey estimated that almost 7% of students in US universities have used prescription stimulants against anxiety, and that on some campuses, up to 25% of students had used them in the past year.

Acupuncture might act as an alternate. Several trials could demonstrate, that different forms of acupuncture could relieve symptoms of pre-exam anxiety syndrome significantly and that this therapy was highly safe. In special, the investigation of single point effects in test anxiety could be of general interest. The acupuncture point with the most convincing evidence up to date is Heart 7. Yet, its effectiveness has mainly been chosen in combination with other acupuncture points and not as single remedy in test anxiety. Therefore we establish a trial investigating the immediate needling effects at Heart 7 on the reduction of test anxiety.

Therefore qe implemented a validated stress test, the Trier Social Stress Test TSST, which is known to provoke serious stress responses in healthy subjects. 24 medical students with test anxiety in there history will be randomised to two interventional groups (verum acupuncture and laser acupuncture), being treated and then pass this test. Main outcome is the increase of cortisol in saliva, which is the standardized measure of stress response used in this paradigm.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Test Anxiety in the clinical history
* Male medical students 3rd to 5th year
* Compliance
* Age \> 18 years
* Smoking cessation for 24 hours

Exclusion Criteria:

* Severe physical or psychical illness
* Psychiatric record in medical history
* Continuous uptake of antipsychiatric medication, tranquilizers or neuro-enhancers
* Acupuncture treatment within the last 4 weeks
* Hang-over
* Drug consumption
* Smoking (\> 5 cigarettes/ day)

Primary outcomes:
measure: Cortisol in saliva
timeFrame: 8 timepoints (in minutes: -40;-10;+10;+20;+30;+40;+55;+70)
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Test Anxiety on a Visual Analogue Scale
timeFrame: 4 timepoints (in minutes: -40;-10;+20;+55)
measure: Primary Appraisal Secondary Appraisal
timeFrame: 2 timepoints (-40 and +10 minutes)
measure: Multidimensional Mood State Questionnaire
timeFrame: 4 timepoints )in minutes: -40;-10;+10;+20)
measure: State Trait Anxiety Questionnaire
timeFrame: 3 timepoints (in minutes: -40;-10;+10)
measure: alpha amylase in saliva
timeFrame: 6 timepoints (in minutes: -40;-10;+10;+20;+30;+55)
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Germany
country: Germany
facility: Medical School, University of Regensburg
state: Bavaria
Study officials:
References: