The Effect of Acupuncture on Anxiety in undergraduate student

INTERVENTION: Acupuncture Therapy Other Test Anxiety Scale The AC session was held for 20 minutes in day before the anatomy test by two licensed acupuncturists. The participants remained seated in chairs during the procedure. The following acupoints were used:PC‐6 (Neiguan), HT‐7 (Shenmen), LV‐3 (Taichong) and the Yintang. These acupoints were used according to anxiolytic effects.13,14 Sterile stainless steel needles measuring 0.30 x 30 mm were bilaterally inserted at acupoints mentioned above (except Yintang). The needles were inserted and manually rotated in clockwise and counterclockwise directions simultaneously with upward and downward movements.These movements were made until eliciting the De Qi. Placebo acupuncture (PL) was done outside acupoints and main meridians. The location of these points was defined according to following anatomical references: In the upper limbs, one point was located midway between the ulna styloid process and the medial epicondyle of humerus, on the medial aspect of forearm. The other point was located midway between the styloid process of radius and the lateral epicondyle of humerus, on the lateral aspect of forearm. In the head, the only point was located between the Yintang point and the Yuyao point, in forehead region. In dorsum of foot, the point was located on first metatarsal bone in the same line as point LV‐3. The needling was superficial, without obtaining De Qi. In day before the anatomical test, participants of NI(6 participants) group remained in treatment room at same time as the participants who underwent AC(8 participants) or PL(6 participants). During this time, the researcher conducted a conversion with the participants on varied subjects, avoiding talking about the evaluation. To maintain the participants' blinding purpose, they were told that two different types of combinations of acupoints would be investigated compared to NI. In this way, participants were not aware of which group they were allocated to, except for the NI group. CONDITION: Anxiety Anxiety ; Anxiety PRIMARY OUTCOME: Decreased anxiety in the group treated with acupuncture, verified by the visual analog scale method, from the finding of a variation of at least 5% in pre and post‐intervention measurements. SECONDARY OUTCOME: Decreased anxiety in the group treated with sham acupuncture, verified by the visual analog scale method, from the finding of a variation of at least 5% in pre and post‐intervention measurements. INCLUSION CRITERIA: with no previous experience with acupuncture; without history of psychotropic or opioid medication use ; without disease that limits the use of acupuncture