Study population
allergy, psychiatric, chronic primary pain disorders, anxiety
ALLERGY, DISORDERS
Participants were recruited via web- and print-based advertisement (title: “Efficacy study of two treatment methods for test anxiety”) and registered online for the study. Potential enrollees had to be students of the University of Basel aged between 18 and 65 years. To meet inclusion criteria, participants had to have an exam at the end of the semester, have self-reported test anxiety, being healthy by self-report (i.e., no known current or chronic primary pain disorders or psychiatric disorders) and be sufficiently proficient in German. Exclusion criteria were use of medications (psychoactive or narcotic), being in psychological or psychiatric treatment, taking psychotropic drugs, being a master student in Psychology (due to prior knowledge about placebo mechanisms), allergy to one of the ingredients of the placebo pills (see supplementary material), and problems swallowing pills. All participants were reimbursed either financially or with credit points.