Effect of Acupuncture on Improving Anxiety, Sleep, and Quality of Life

The aim of this study was to verify the effect of acupuncture on anxiety, sleep and quality of life improvement of anxious individuals. This is a nonrandomized clinical trial. The volunteers were allocated in the Acupuncture Group (AG) or Control Group (CG). The AG was treated with 12 sessions of acupuncture once a week for 20 minutes. Anxiety was assessed by 2 instruments, Hamilton Scale and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), sleep was by the Sleep Inventory and quality of life by the WHOQOL - Bref questionnaire, which were applied at the beginning, middle and 12 weeks of intervention. The data were treated statistically, and for comparison between groups the parametric statistical analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was used. The sample consisted of 45 volunteers, 25 in AG and 20 in CG. The mean age was 24.16 years in AG and 21.4 years in CG. Between the beginning and after 12 weeks (end), there were statistically significant differences for all variables: STAI-State (p=0.0001); STAI-Trace (p=0.0001); Hamilton Scale (p=0.0001); Sleep Inventory (p=0.001) and WHOQOL-Bref (p=0.001). The use of acupuncture resulted in improved anxiety, sleep and quality of life of the studied group, demonstrating this to be a therapeutic possibility for treating people with anxiety.