The Effect of Aromatherapy with Lavender Essence on Anxiety Control in Patients: A Systematic Review Study

Lavender is one of the medicinal plants for control of anxiety, so this study aimed to review the effect of inhaled aromatherapy with lavender essential oil on anxiety. This systematic review study was conducted by searching the Iranian databases of SID, Magiran, and Irandoc and international databases Google-Scholar, PubMed, ProQuest, Springer and Web of Science by using identified keywords and OR and AND operator. The searching of the mentioned database was conducted from 2000 to the end of June of 2019. Screening of articles was done on the basis of titles, abstracts, full text of articles, its relevance to study objectives, inclusion and exclusion criteria. The quality of articles was also evaluated based on JADAD Checklist. Out of 218 articles found, after elimination of duplicate and unrelated articles with the main purpose of the study, finally 20 studies were entered into the review. All interventional studies were randomized clinical trials that were conducted from 2008 to 2019. Studies were conducted on patients undergoing open heart surgery, patients with myocardial infarction, patients undergoing angiography, patients undergoing surgery, patients undergoing hemodialysis, burn patients, patients undergoing colonoscopy and patients undergoing chemotherapy. Intervention in the most studies was inhaled aromatherapy with pure lavender essential oil. Most studies reported a positive effect of inhaled aromatherapy with lavender essential oil on reducing anxiety in some patients, but some studies reported that aromatherapy with Lavender essential oil had no significant effect on reducing anxiety. Considering the effect of lavender essential oil on anxiety reduction, it may be possible to use lavender aromatherapy as an easy and non-invasive intervention to reduce anxiety in patients in intensive care, surgical, burn, and stressful procedures.