Aromatherapy placebo effect

If you ve ever wondered why ice melts under a skate or why meat is red or where the colours of flowers come from, you will wonder no more. No longer will you be at the mercy of advertisers who make questionable claims about noni juice, glucosamine, bottled water, aromatherapy and homeopathy. Confusion about the placebo effect, brown versus white sugar, blood doping, DDT, dioxins and the ozone layer will be seen to evaporate with the infusion of sound science. You will even discover why you don t need hot water to make a hard-boiled egg and why drags and grapefruit juice do not mix. 

There is a vast difference between aromatherapy in the United Kingdom and that in continental Europe (aromatology) the former is alternative, while the latter is conventional. The alternative aromatherapy is largely based on healing, which is largely based on belief (Millenson, 1995 Benson and Stark, 1996 Lis-Balchin, 1997). This is credited with a substantial placebo in uence. However, the placebo effect can be responsible for results in both procedures. 

Magic was often used as part of the treatment and gave the patient the expectation of a cure and thus, provided a placebo effect (Pinch, 1994). The term placing the hand appears frequently in a large number of medical papyri this probably alludes to the manual examination in order to reach a diagnosis but could also imply cure by the laying on of hands, or even both (Nunn, 1997). This could be the basis of modern massage (with or without aromatherapy). It is certainly the basis of many alternative medicine practices at present (Lis-Balchin, 1997). 

It is doubtful whether a woman would in her rst labor, or in subsequent ones, be able to judge whether the contractions were strengthened or the labor shortened due to aromatherapy. It seems likely that there was some placebo effect (itself a very powerful effector) due to the bias of the experimenters and the suggestions made to the aromatherapy group regarding ef cacy of essential oils, which were obviously absent in the case of the control group. 

Because of the lack of scienti c evidence in many studies, we could assume that aromatherapy is mainly based on faith it works because the aromatherapist believes in the treatment and because the patient believes in the supposed action of essential oils, that is, the placebo effect. 

Aromatherapy, using essential oils as an odorant by inhalation or massage onto the skin, has not been shown to work better than massage alone or a control. No failures have, however, been reported, although treatment is invariably changed on each visit. Many patients feel better, even if their disease is getting worse, due to their belief in an alternative therapist and this is a good example of mind over matter, that is, the placebo effect. This effect has been recommended by some members... 

Han, S-H., Hur, M-H., Buckle, J., Choi, J., Lee, M. S. 2006. Effect of aromatherapy on symptoms of dysmenorrhea in college students A randomised placebo-controlled clinical trial. 

A double-blind randomized trial was conducted on 66 women undergoing abortions (Wiebe, 2000). Ten minutes were spent snif ng a numbered container with either a mixture of the essential oils (vetivert, bergamot, and geranium) or a hair conditioner (placebo). Aromatherapy involving essential oils was no more effective than having patients sniff other pleasant odors in reducing... 

Ballard. C. et al., 2002. Aromatherapy as a safe and effective treatment for the management of agitation in severe dementia A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with Melissa, 63 553-558. 

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