The Effect of Lavender Aromatherapy on Pain and Anxiety Caused by Peripheral Venous Cannulation in School-Age Children: A Double-Blind Randomized Clinical Trial

Venous catheterization is one of the most common invasive interventions that lead to pain and anxiety in children. This study was conducted with the aim of the effect of aromatherapy of lavender essential oil on pain and anxiety caused by the placement of peripheral venous cannula in school-age children.

A clinical trial on 96 school-age children in the emergency department of Amirkla Children's Hospital, Babol; was selected through available sampling and randomly assigned to the control and aromatherapy groups in a block of four. The level of pain and anxiety was measured immediately, five and ten minutes after the completion of the venipuncture by the evaluator using a Visual analog scale and Observational Scale of Behavioral Distress.

The average pain score of children in the lavender group immediately and five minutes after the insertion of the peripheral venous cannula was not significantly different from the placebo group. But ten minutes after placing the peripheral venous cannula in the lavender group, it was significantly less than the placebo group. Also, the average anxiety score of children in the lavender group was not significantly different from the placebo group.

Only the average pain score ten minutes after placement of peripheral venous cannula in school-aged children in the lavender group was lower than the placebo group. It seems that the effect of aromatherapy will be different depending on the age group, the level of need, and the type of lavender species from which the essential oil is extracted.