A survey on the effects of Lavender aromatherapy on the anxiety and vital signs of patients with ischemic heart diseases hospitalized in cardiac intensive care units

Background: Patients with ischemic diseases (MI) experience severe anxiety in acute phase in the first 48 hours after ‎hospitalization. This study was aimed to assess the effect of aromatherapy on the anxiety levels and vital signs of patients with ischemic heart diseases.

Methods: In this clinical trial, 80 patients with ischemic heart diseases were randomly divided into two experimental group (n=40) and control group (n=40). Patients in experiment group were asked to inhale two drops of lavender essential oil, whereas in control group, patients inhaled two drops of distilled water for 20 minutes. The patients’ anxiety level was measured by Spielberger questionnaire five times (one before and four after intervention). Furthermore, vital signs were recorded on a designed checklist during five times. The data analysis was carried out using SPSS version 22 software and using various descriptive and inferential statistic formulas.

Results: The results indicated that there was no significant difference regarding the anxiety mean score of both experimental (50.40±10.015) and control groups (51.88±4.195) at the beginning of the study.  After aromatherapy, the mean state anxiety scores were different in two groups as the level of state anxiety significantly decreased compared with that of control group (p<0.001). Furthermore, a significant difference was found in respect to systolic diastolic blood pressure scores, and respiratory and pulse rates in the two groups (P<0.05).

Conclusions: Aromatherapy can decrease the anxiety level and vital signs of patients with ischemic heart diseases. Accordingly, this can be used as an alternative way to reduce anxiety which is safe, low risk and inexpensive.