Effects of auriculotherapy on anxiety and biomarkers in Primary Health Care: a clinical trial.
Carina da Silva, Letícia Siqueira, Lívia Crespo Drago and 3 others
PMID 38055476WHAT IT FOUND
Four weekly auriculotherapy sessions were followed by lower trait anxiety scores in 19 adults with medium or high anxiety; state anxiety did not change.
No control group means this cannot prove the treatment worked.
Key findings
01After four weekly auriculotherapy sessions, mean trait anxiety scores decreased from 52.11 ± 6,691 to 43.72 ± 8,141 (P = 0.0007).
02State anxiety scores did not change significantly (44.05 ± 6,998 before, 44.32 ± 7.095 after; P > 0.05).
03S100B levels fell significantly (64.03 ± 72.18 pg/mL before, 54.03 ± 68.53 pg/mL after; P = 0.0023), while BDNF and NSE did not change significantly.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only 19 adults were analyzed, so the study is too small to draw firm conclusions. There was no control group and no randomization, so any change could reflect time, expectation, or other factors rather than auriculotherapy. Participants were excluded if they were using psychotropic drugs, antibiotics, corticosteroids, or anabolic steroids, and they had to have medium or high anxiety, so the results may not apply to many primary care patients with anxiety. All participants received the same standardized auriculotherapy protocol, so the study does not test individualized nursing care. The S100B biomarker reduction did not correlate with anxiety scores, so it is not linked to a clinical benefit in this paper.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude auriculotherapy treats anxiety. The study had no control group, analyzed only 19 adults, and state anxiety did not change; the trait anxiety and S100B changes cannot be separated from time, expectation, or other factors.