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Complementary Therapies in Clinical... Aug 2023The purpose of this systematic review is to ascertain the impact of inhalation aromatherapy on stress and anxiety in clinical settings. (Review)
Review
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this systematic review is to ascertain the impact of inhalation aromatherapy on stress and anxiety in clinical settings.
METHODS
A search strategy was developed using various databases. Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) as well as single and double-blind pilot clinical studies (non-RCT) using inhalation aromatherapy with an essential oil blend or a single essential oil were examined. All studies included a control intervention and use of a validated measurement tool. The time period under review was years 2000-2021. Due to the high level of heterogeneity and element of bias, a narrative synthesis was conducted.
RESULTS
The search strategy initially retrieved 628 studies and through application of the selection criteria and the removal of duplicates, 76 studies were selected for review with a total of 6539 patients. In 42% of the RCTs, physiological measures including vital signs and/or salivary cortisol were used in addition to questionnaires. Over 70% of the studies reported a positive effect on anxiety levels in the aromatherapy intervention groups compared with the control. However, in many cases this is limited by the absence of safety data, imprecise reporting of plant species and dosage of essential oil.
CONCLUSION
Inhalation aromatherapy has the potential to reduce stress and anxiety with data emerging to further support this result across a wide modality of clinical treatments. However, there is a clear need for the development of standard protocols for research in this area, generating measurable results which will create the opportunity for more rigorous evidence-based outcomes.
Topics: Humans; Aromatherapy; Oils, Volatile; Anxiety; Anxiety Disorders; Administration, Inhalation; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
PubMed: 37031643
DOI: 10.1016/j.ctcp.2023.101750 -
Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer... Aug 2023Palliative care is the active holistic treatment of people of all ages who have serious health-related suffering as a result of severe illness, and especially of those... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
BACKGROUND
Palliative care is the active holistic treatment of people of all ages who have serious health-related suffering as a result of severe illness, and especially of those who are close to the end of life. Palliative care is provided to cancer patients who experience serious suffering that cannot be relieved without professional intervention and that compromises physical, social, spiritual, and emotional functioning. A straightforward, low-risk, and affordable palliative care approach may be provided through aromatherapy, a type of complementary and alternative medicine. The study objective is to assess the comparative effectiveness of massage, aromatherapy massage, and massage combined with aromatherapy inhalation on cancer patients receiving palliative care.
METHODS
A total of 100 participants who were divided into four groups at random. The first group, designated as the control group, received standard hospital nursing care, the second group received massage only (using the odorless almond carrier oil), the third group received massage with lavender oil, and the fourth group received combined (inhalation and massage) aromatherapy. The Rotterdam Symptom Checklist (RSCL), given two weeks after aromatherapy, was used to examine participants' perspectives of care.
RESULTS
On the RSCL, combined aromatherapy performed best. In terms of reported physical symptoms, psychological symptoms, and activities, there were statistically significant differences between the scores of the control group and each of the experimental groups. Nonetheless, the total quality of life score showed no significant difference between the control group and the massage only group (t = 0.529, p = 0.60).
CONCLUSIONS
When paired with aromatherapy inhalation, massage has a positive effect on physical, psychological symptoms, activities, and overall quality of life for cancer patients receiving early palliative care. Nurses and other healthcare providers are recommended to support programs that provide message therapy to reduce reported bodily symptoms, psychological problems, and limited activities among cancer patients.
Topics: Humans; Aromatherapy; Mind-Body Therapies; Neoplasms; Palliative Care; Quality of Life
PubMed: 37642059
DOI: 10.31557/APJCP.2023.24.8.2729 -
BMC Women's Health Jul 2023Menopause is the time that marks passing 12 months after the last menstruation cycle in women between ages 40-50. Menopausal women often experience depression and...
BACKGROUND
Menopause is the time that marks passing 12 months after the last menstruation cycle in women between ages 40-50. Menopausal women often experience depression and insomnia that significantly impact their overall well-being and quality of life. This systematic review aims to determine the effects of different therapeutic physiotherapy modalities on insomnia and depression in perimenopausal, menopausal, and post-menopausal women.
METHODOLOGY
After identifying our inclusion/exclusion criteria, we conducted a database search in Ovid Embase, MIDRIS, PubMed, Cochrane, and ScienceOpen, where 4007 papers were identified. By using EndNote software, we excluded duplicates, unrelated, and non-full text papers. Adding more studies from manual search, we finally included 31 papers including 7 physiotherapy modalities: exercise, reflexology, footbath, walking, therapeutic and aromatherapy massage, craniofacial message, and yoga.
RESULTS
Reflexology, yoga, walking and aromatherapy massage showed an overall significant impact on decreasing insomnia and depression in menopausal women. Most of exercise and stretching interventions also showed improvement in sleep quality but inconsistent findings regarding depression. However, insufficient evidence was found regarding the effect of craniofacial massage, footbath, and acupressure on improving sleep quality and depression in menopausal women.
CONCLUSION
Using non-pharmaceutical interventions such as therapeutic and manual physiotherapy have an overall positive impact on reducing insomnia and depression in menopausal women.
Topics: Female; Humans; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders; Postmenopause; Perimenopause; Depression; Quality of Life; Menopause; Physical Therapy Modalities
PubMed: 37422660
DOI: 10.1186/s12905-023-02515-9 -
Heliyon Aug 2023Neurological diseases affect the nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord, cranial nerves, nerve roots, autonomic nervous system, neuromuscular junctions, and... (Review)
Review
Neurological diseases affect the nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord, cranial nerves, nerve roots, autonomic nervous system, neuromuscular junctions, and muscles. Herbal medicine has long been used to cure these diseases. One of these plants is lavender, which is composed of various compounds, including terpenes, such as linalool, limonene, triterpenes, linalyl acetate, alcohols, ketones, polyphenols, coumarins, cineole, and flavonoids. In this review, the literature was searched using scientific search engines and databases (Google Scholar, Science Direct, Scopus, and PubMed) for papers published between 1982 and 2020 via keywords, including review, lavender, and neurological disorders. This plant exerts its healing effect on many diseases, such as anxiety and depression through an inhibitory effect on GABA. The anti-inflammatory effects of this plant have also been documented. It improves depression by regulating glutamate receptors and inhibiting calcium channels and serotonergic factors, such as SERT. Its antiepileptic mechanism is due to an increase in the inhibitory effect of GABA and potassium current and a decrease in sodium current. Therefore, many vegetable oils are also used in herbal medicine. In this review, the healing effect of lavender on several neurological disorders, including epilepsy, depression, anxiety, migraine, and Alzheimer's disease was investigated. All findings strongly support the traditional uses of lavender. More clinical studies are needed to investigate the effect of the plants' pharmacological active constituents on the treatment of life-threatening diseases in humans. The limitations of this study are the low quality and the limited number of clinical studies. Different administration methods of lavender are one of the limitations of this review.
PubMed: 37554839
DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e18492 -
European Journal of Obstetrics &... Dec 2023One non-pharmacological method that can be used to safely and without negative side effects is aromatherapy. This meta-analysis study was carried out to assess the... (Review)
Review
One non-pharmacological method that can be used to safely and without negative side effects is aromatherapy. This meta-analysis study was carried out to assess the effectiveness of aromatherapy in the treatment of labor pain. The analysis included 14 randomized controlled trials of aromatherapy interventions for labor pain. In the studies, it was observed that aromatherapy was applied through massage and inhalation using oils such as lavender, jasmine, rose, chamomile, bitter orange, and boswellia. In the meta-analysis, it was discovered that aromatherapy had a beneficial effect on the management of labor pain and reduced labor pain in the intervention group in 11 studies; it was found that there was no effect in 3 studies. According to analysis findings, aromatherapy significantly lessened the intensity of labor pain. The study's findings support the notion that aromatherapy can lessen labor pain.
PubMed: 37954534
DOI: 10.1016/j.eurox.2023.100255 -
Heliyon Jul 2023Aromatherapy is a natural treatment method that uses essential oils (EOs) extracted from aromatic plants; EOs and their components exhibit a wide range of...
Aromatherapy is a natural treatment method that uses essential oils (EOs) extracted from aromatic plants; EOs and their components exhibit a wide range of pharmacological activities, with a special focus on their implementation toward mental disorders, such as anxiety and depression. This study aimed to identify the scientific output and activity related to aromatherapy in anxiety, depression, and insomnia through bibliometric approaches. In this bibliometric study, we utilized CiteSpace and VOSviewer to evaluate the Web of Science Core Collection publications and to build visualizing maps to analyze the research progress on this topic between 2001 and 2021. A total of 1159 original and review articles in English, published in 578 different peer-reviewed journals by 260 authors, were identified. In the recent two decades, there was a steady increase in the number of published articles, especially in the following five years. All publications were distributed among 88 countries/regions. The United States had the most publications, with 188 (16.22%) articles, followed by China [131 (11.30%)], Brazil [110 (9.49%)], and Japan [85 (7.33%)]. Most studies were published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, and Physiology & Behavior was the most cited journal. Hritcu L was the top published scientist and Gupta SC was the most frequently co-cited. The knowledge base of this field research mainly included the related efficacy of aromatherapy/EOs, application status, and biochemical mechanism. And the keyword co-occurrence analysis revealed that the topics "oxidative stress," "chemical composition," "systematic review," and "sleep quality" were research frontiers. In conclusion, this comprehensive bibliometric study provides an updated perspective on research hotspots of aromatherapy in anxiety or depression and developmental tendencies of natural remedies for mental health. In addition, this study could also provide valuable information for research teams, practitioners, and decision-makers when designing and implementing natural treatment methods for mental health-promoting interventions for individuals with mood disorders.
PubMed: 37519641
DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e18380 -
Renal Failure Dec 2023Aromatherapy has been used for patients on maintenance hemodialysis (MHD), but the outcomes are still controversial. Thus, we conducted this study to systematically... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
Aromatherapy has been used for patients on maintenance hemodialysis (MHD), but the outcomes are still controversial. Thus, we conducted this study to systematically evaluate the effect of aromatherapy on the quality of life of patients on MHD. We searched the PubMed, Embays, Scopus, Web of Science, and CNKI databases for randomized controlled trials that evaluated the use of aromatherapy in dialysis patients and reported at least one outcome of interest. Twenty-two relevant studies were included in the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis revealed that aromatherapy significantly increased subjective sleep quality (a lower score indicates better sleep quality) [standardized mean difference (SMD) = -1.52, 95% CI (-2.38, -0.67), < 0.01] and reduced fatigue [SMD = -1.14, 95% CI (-1.95, -0.33), = 0.01], anxiety [SMD = -1.38, 95% CI (-2.09, -0.67), < 0.01], symptoms of restless legs syndrome [RLS; SMD = -1.71, 95% CI (-2.09, -1.33), < 0.01], and arteriovenous fistula puncture pain [SMD= -1.56, 95% CI (-2.60, -0.52), < 0.01]. Aromatherapy may be used as a novel complementary and alternative therapy to improve sleep quality and reduce fatigue, anxiety, symptoms of RLS, and arteriovenous fistula puncture pain in patients on MHD.
Topics: Humans; Aromatherapy; Quality of Life; Pain; Renal Dialysis; Fatigue
PubMed: 36908215
DOI: 10.1080/0886022X.2022.2164202 -
Journal of Clinical Medicine Aug 2023This narrative review aims to summarize non-pharmacological interventions for pain management in hemodialysis patients, assessing their potential benefits and... (Review)
Review
This narrative review aims to summarize non-pharmacological interventions for pain management in hemodialysis patients, assessing their potential benefits and limitations in enhancing patient well-being and quality of life. We reviewed the current literature on five primary non-pharmacological interventions: acupuncture, cognitive behavioral therapy, relaxation techniques, virtual reality, and alternative methods such as transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, music therapy, and aromatherapy. We analyzed the evidence regarding their effectiveness, feasibility, and optimal implementation strategies. The existing evidence supports the potential benefits of these interventions in managing pain and improving the well-being of hemodialysis patients. However, further high-quality research is needed to confirm their effectiveness, establish implementation best practices, and assess their long-term impact on patient outcomes. Non-pharmacological interventions hold promise for pain management in hemodialysis patients. Additional research is required to optimize these interventions and validate their effectiveness, contributing to comprehensive pain management strategies for this vulnerable patient population.
PubMed: 37629432
DOI: 10.3390/jcm12165390