Electroacupuncture and acupuncture in the treatment of anxiety - A double blinded randomized parallel clinical trial |
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Affiliation: | 1. Instituto de Medicina Integrativa, Rua Filipe Simões nº19, 3000-186, Coimbra, Portugal;2. Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, Universidade do Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira 228, 4050-313, Porto, Portugal;3. Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Coimbra & UICISA:E, Avenida Bissaya Barreto Polo A, Apartado 7001, 3046-851, Coimbra, Portugal;4. LABINSAÚDE - Laboratório de Investigação em Ciências Aplicadas à Saúde, Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra, ESTeSC, Rua 5 de Outubro, 3046-854, Coimbra, Portugal;5. Unidade I&D Química-Física Molecular, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade de Coimbra, 3004-535, Coimbra, Portugal;6. Politécnico de Coimbra, ESTESC, Ciências Biomédicas Laboratoriais, Rua 5 de Outubro, 3046-854, Coimbra, Portugal;7. Politécnico de Coimbra, ESTESC, Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Rua 5 de Outubro, 3046-854, Coimbra, Portugal;8. CBSin - Center of BioSciences in Integrative Health, Porto, Portugal |
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Abstract: | BackgroundThe estimated number of people living with anxiety disorders worldwide is around 264 million and is estimated to have worsened with the recent pandemic of COVID-19. Acupuncture has shown to have excellent therapeutic effects in reducing anxiety.DesignDouble-blinded randomized controlled clinical trial with 56 participants (21–82 years) with anxiety diagnosed by 3 different anxiety scales (BAI, GAD-7 and OASIS). A 30-min acupuncture session was applied once a week for 10 weeks.AimsEvaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture and electroacupuncture in the treatment of anxiety to verify if: (1) People with high anxiety report reduced scores after 5 and 10 sessions; (2) Salivary cortisol levels accompanied the reduced scores; (3) Electroacupuncture treatment is more effective than acupuncture; (4) the treatments is independent of anxiolytic medication.MethodsVolunteers were randomized into 3 groups (control, acupuncture, and electroacupuncture). The results were analyzed by anxiety scales and salivary cortisol tests.ResultsThe findings show an improvement in anxiety, assessed by BAI, GAD-7 and OASIS, after the 5th session of acupuncture (p < 0.05) and electroacupuncture (p < 0.05) and the 10th session for both techniques (p < 0.001). The salivary cortisol values measured in the morning followed this pattern (p < 0.05), although the reduction of the night cortisol values was not statistically significant. Electroacupuncture and acupuncture show similar efficacy. The positive effect after the treatments is independent of anxiolytic medication (p < 0.001).ConclusionAcupuncture and electroacupuncture are effective in treating anxiety on their own or as adjuncts to pharmacological therapy.Trial registration numberNºP445-08/2017 (Unidade de Investigação em Ciências da Saúde); |
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Keywords: | Acupuncture Electroacupuncture Anxiety Salivary cortisol Anxiety surveys |
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