title: Comparing the treatment effectiveness of body acupuncture and auricular acupuncture in preoperative anxiety treatment.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Preoperative anxiety has become more frequent in preoperative patients and can bring negative impact on operation outcomes. Many studies have reported the effect of body acupuncture in reducing anxiety syndromes. The aim of this study is to compare the treatment effect of body acupuncture and auricular acupuncture in preoperative patients with preoperative anxiety.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty five elective ambulatory surgery patients were selected in the randomized and blinded trial. Subjects were randomly categorized in two intervention groups, the body acupuncture group who received acupuncture in the special points of body, and the auricular acupuncture group who received ear acupuncture. Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) was used before and after the study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For the auricular acupuncture group, the mean score of SAS was 57.57 ± 8.22 before the intervention and 46.32 ± 6.37 afterward. For the body acupuncture group, the SAS score was 55.39 ± 5.41 and 44.82 ± 6.76 before and after the intervention, respectively. For both groups, the difference between pre- and post-treatment scores reached the significant level (p = 0.00).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Both auricular and body acupuncture treatment methods were effective in decreasing anxiety in preoperative patients.
authors: Department of Psychology, School of Aerospace Medicine, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
authors: Shengjun
authors: S
authors: Wu
authors: Jie
authors: J
authors: Liang
authors: Xia
authors: X
authors: Zhu
authors: Xufeng
authors: X
authors: Liu
authors: Danmin
authors: D
authors: Miao