Differences Between the Physiologic and Psychologic Effects of Aromatherapy Body Treatment
From PCI Journal

Reviewed by Ada Polla Tray, MBA

Hitomi Takeda, PhD., Junzo Tsujita, BS, Mitsuharu Kaya, PhD., Masanori Takmura, MS, and Yoshita Oku, MD

Published in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Vol. 14, No. 6, 2008, pp. 655-661.

Introduction
Stress-related and fatigue-related diseases have increased recently. The development of effective methods to prevent such diseases is urgently needed. Aromatherapy is a kind of phytotherapy, which uses essential oils extracts from plants. The effects of odor compounds contained in the essential oils have been clarified scientifically, and aromatherapy has come to be used as a complementary and alternative medicine for mental and physical diseases. In the present study, our aim was to evaluate the effects of aromatherapy body treatment on healthy subjects and to clarify the association between psycologic and psychologic responses to the therapy.

Methods
Seven female and six male volunteers (age: 30.9 +/- 7.8 years) who gave their informed consent participated as subjects. Each subject participated in 3 trials, in which a stress-inducing task was given before and after 1 of 3 treatments. Treatments included massage, treatment with essential oils diluted in carrier oil, massage treatment with carrier oil alone, and rest.

Macadamia nut (Macadamia intergrifolia) oil was used as the carrier oil. We blended 3 essential oils in an attempt to make the fragrance pleasant for all subjects. Essential oils included orange sweet (Citrus sinensis), true lavender, and marjoram sweet (Origanum majorana). The oils were all mixed into the carrier oil with the ratio of 2:1:1 as one 1% solution.

The Advanced Trail Making Test (ATMT) was performed as a stress-inducing task before and after each treatment. The ATMT is a computerized version of the Trail Making Test, in which each subject performs a visual search task.

Two (2) parameters, the number of errors and the time to finish, were used to assess the level of mental fatigue. In addition, the following variables were measured at 4 measurement points: at the beginning of each trial, after the first ATMA, after teach treatment, and after the second ATMT.

State-trait anxiety
Anxiety was assessed by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Form.

Subjective feelings
Subjective feelings of fatigue (physical, mental, and total) relaxation, refreshment, and satisfaction were measured by the visual analog scale.

Change of mood
Changes of mood were evaluated by the 20-step Face Scale.

Cortisol and secretory immunoglobulin A concentrations in the saliva
Saliva samples were collected using saliva collection test tubes, Sallivett, and stored at -80 degrees Celsius for later analyses. Cortisol and secretory immunoglobulin A in the saliva were measured by radioimmunoassay and turbidimetricimmunoassay respectively. Discussion
Massage treatments decreased anxiety and feelings of fatigue and increased positive and comfortable feelings, irrespective of the use of essential oils. The results indicate that most beneficial effects of the aromatherapy body treatment are the result of massage rather than essential oils. Aromatherapy had no adverse effect. Furthermore, aromatherapy had long-lasting, fatigue-relieving effects independent of massage treatment, which would be beneficial for workers under stressful environments.

There are a number of factors that must be taken into account when interpreting the present results.

First, the concentration of essential oils might be insufficient to elicit significant effects. The 1% concentration of essential oils used in the present study was at the lower end of the range of recommended dilution concentrations for safety reasons.

Second, essential oils chosen for the present study might not exactly suit subjects’ preferences, although we confirmed that the fragrance of these essential oils did not give the subjects an unpleasant sensation.

However, our results have also shown that essential oils prolong fatigue-relieving effects. Therefore, essential oils may have long-term effects to enhance stress-coping activity.

Conclusions
Massage treatments are superior to rest in terms of psychologic or subjective evaluations but are equivalent to rest in terms of physiologic or objective evaluations. Beneficial effects or aromatherapy body treatment with a 1% concentration for healthy subjects largely depend on the effects of massage treatment rather than the effects of the essential oils. In addition, aromatherapy has long-lasting, fatigue-relieving effects independent of massage treatment. Although we did not find significant differences in the outcomes between men and women, the sample size of the present study might be too small to detect the differences of outcomes by the differences of gender or age. Further study is needed with larger sample sizes.

Reprint requests:
Yoshita Oku, MD
Department of Physiology
Hyogo College of Medicine
1-1, Mukogawa-cho
Nishinomiya, Hyogo, 663-8501
Japan

Email: yoku@hyo-med.ac.jp