Acupuncture Decreases Competitive Anxiety Prior to a Competition in Young Athletes: A Randomized Controlled Trial Pilot Study Publisher Pubmed



Zarei S¹ ; Shayestehfar M¹ ; Memari AH¹ ; Seifbarghi T² ; Sobhani V¹ Show Affiliations
Source: Journal of Complementary and Integrative Medicine Published:2017

Abstract

Although a certain level of competitive anxiety may increase performance, many athletes with anxiety experience uncontrolled negative feelings and cognition that in turn can have overwhelming effects on their performance. We aimed to assess the effect of acupuncture on competitive anxiety of the adolescent football players prior to the competition using psychological and physiological markers. A total of 30 athletes were randomly and equally allocated to either acupuncture or sham control group. The results of t-test on posttest scores showed that acupuncture had a significant effect on cognitive anxiety (p=0.001) and somatic anxiety (p<0.001) but not self-confidence (p>0.05). Furthermore, the results showed that acupuncture significantly decreased the skin conductance in acupuncture group compared to sham group (p=0.006) (p<0.001). In conclusion, the results suggested that acupuncture has the capacity to decrease cognitive and somatic anxiety prior to competition in adolescent athletes while this was accompanied by significant physiological changes. © 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.