Examination of the relationship between cadaveric dissection and anxiety experienced by anatomy students: A scoping review

Purpose

Anatomical literature indicates that cadaveric dissection induces stress among anatomy students. We conducted a scoping review to explore the extent to which dissection correlates with the anxiety experienced by students in the context of anatomical education.

Methods

We searched PubMed, Scopus, ERIC, and the Cochrane library for articles that explored students’ anxiety levels related to dissection for learning anatomy, using specific psychological assessment tools. From each included study, we extracted the following information: author(s), number of participants, duration and number of dissection courses, levels of anxiety (or stress) related to cadaveric dissection, assessment tools, possible interventions to reduce anxiety, and outcomes of these interventions.

Results

Eight articles were included. Four of them explored only dissection as a factor that affects anxiety, while the remaining four studies explored interventions implemented simultaneously with dissection. Most studies showed that dissection led to a notable reduction in the anxiety initially felt by students. This reduction seemed to be related to interventions such as listening to music or binaural beats simultaneously with dissecting. There is a lack of studies with methodology able to demonstrate that dissection itself increases anxiety.

Conclusions

Cadaveric dissection generally seems to alleviate anatomy students’ initial anxiety. This alleviation may be facilitated by factors such as listening to music or binaural beats. Further research will clarify specific factors that significantly reduce students’ initial stress before dissection.