Lavender Oil to Soothe the Mind

This study investigates lavender as a potential treatment for anxiety and depression while examining its effects on physiological markers such as blood pressure, heart rate, and cortisol levels. Lavender’s calming properties have been administered in aromatherapy, oral ingestion, and massage since its essential oils contain linalool and linalyl acetate, which are compounds believed to rectify neurotransmitter activities in the brain. A systematic review of prior studies with controlled, randomized human trials from sources that followed PRISMA guidelines monitored the efficacy of lavender on mental ailments. Researchers hypothesized that lavender is a natural, non-invasive alternative with fewer adverse effects.

Figure 1 outlines a flow diagram of the study selection processes, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The chart outlines that 562 records were retrieved. Their screening process removed 378 duplicate records, of which only 38 were eligible for the qualitative study and 37 for the quantitative analysis. These studies focused strictly on inhalation, massage, and oral exposure of lavender as treatments (independent variables) to regulate anxiety and depression levels (dependent variables) compared to the placebo (control), not receiving any treatment. Only about 6.6% of the records revealed high quality randomized controlled trials (RCTs). This indicates that 93.4% of the studies did not sufficiently validate lavender’s anxiolytic and antidepressant properties, but does support the hypothesis that lavender may have beneficial physiological compounds.

Figure 3 is a forest plot which is meant to create a visual representation of the efficacy of lavender in alleviating self-rated anxiety levels across 30 studies when lavender was used for intervention. The type of lavender intervention (e.g., inhalation, topical application) (independent variable) were measuring self-reported anxiety levels (dependent variable) measured through standardized assessment tools. The comparison and placebo groups (control variables) were also included in the assessment. The data indicate that lavender has a significant effect on reducing anxiety (Hedges' g = -0.72) with a confidence interval ranging from -0.90 to -0.55, favoring the effects of lavender. This supports the hypothesis since self-reported assessments confirmed that participants experienced reduced anxiety due to the lavender oil.

Figure 4 presents a sensitivity analysis to examine whether removing “high-risk” cases (independent variables) from the study will affect the overall assessment that lavender has on anxiety and depression by measuring the change in the mean effect size (dependent variable) using the Hedges’ g model (control variable). The researchers found that removing these high-risk studies had minimal impact on the results, with the mean effect size remaining between -0.72 and -0.62, confirming that the findings are grounded, and not influenced by biased studies.

This study supports lavender as a viable treatment option for anxiety and depression, though its effects on physiological markers remain inconclusive. While the study concludes that lavender lowers systolic blood pressure, its effects on diastolic pressure, heart rate, and cortisol were inconsistent and require further research. Future studies could explore dosage levels, alternative administration methods, and long-term monitoring to determine lavender’s full potential as a natural therapeutic option for mental and physical health.

Kim, M., Nam, E., Lee, Y., & Kang, H. Effects of lavender on anxiety, depression and

physiologic parameters: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Asian Nursing Research. 15, (2021), 279-290. 10.1016/j.anr.2021.11.001.