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The effects of stress on college students and staff in a “big urban college population” were studied at Arizona State University. The experiment consisted of a two-group, randomized controlled trial in which subjects were given either sham or verum acupuncture. The study involved college students, faculty, and staff from a large public university, and it was approved by the university’s institutional review board with each participant’s agreement.
Prior to the start of the trial, each participant completed the Cohen’s Global Measure of Perceived Stress questionnaire at five distinct points. The goal of this stage was to see how stress levels altered or didn’t change for each participant during the treatment.
The acupuncture points that were used within the study were as follows: GV 20 / PC 6 / HT 7 / Ying Tang / Four Gates / CV 17 / CV 6 / ST 36.
These points were given to the treatment group which was set to undergo verum acupuncture. Each group reported to the acupuncture clinic once a week for a 30-minute session.
The second group (considered the control group) received sham acupuncture in 3 points that are not known to have any effect on stress. These points on the body are located between meridians and were inserted unilaterally and without stimulation or manipulation to ensure that de qi would not occur.
After the study was completed, each participant was asked about their stress levels six, twelve, eighteen, and twenty-four weeks later. The verum acupuncture group reported a 45.8% reduction in stress perception between the first treatment and the 24th-week post-treatment. Between the start of the trial and the end of therapy, the sham acupuncture group had a 40.3 percent difference in stress levels. The sham acupuncture group, on the other hand, showed a decrease in stress scores three months after treatment.
To reduce the amount of error in the study, they “treated every participant with the same point combination, no matter what their underlying energetics may have suggested.” This was to keep the acupuncture points as consistent as possible to obtain the most accurate results possible.
The study found that acupuncture lowered stress in the study participants, but that a larger sample size might benefit in obtaining more statistically consistent results.
This study appears promising for determining the effects of reducing stress on university-goers through the treatment of acupuncture. However, further study and testing would be necessary for more conclusive results.
If you are having high levels of stress while in college and you are trying to find a healthy way of releasing it, call us today and see how acupuncture can help you release your stress and lead to doing better in school.
