Aromatherapy can significantly lift anxiety and depression. It’s the sort
of statement you see on alternative-therapy websites and pamphlets for
practitioners who massage fragrant oils into people’s skin. And you’ve
probably always suspected that there was little to back it up.
Today all that changes. According to an authoritative study by Cancer
Research UK, in the latest issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology,
that assertion is true. The new study is significant, and not just because it
indicates that after chemotherapy and other treatment, aromatherapy helps to
relieve anxiety and depression much quicker than other approaches.
The researchers believe it is the first large randomised controlled trial
(the highest standard of research, which doctors take most seriously) to be
conducted on a complementary therapy in several centres in the NHS. And it
indicates that health service workers and research funders are beginning to
take seriously the potential contribution of complementary medicines. “I think
it’s enormously exciting,” says the lead researcher, Amanda Ramirez, the
director of the Cancer Research UK London Psychosocial Group at King’s College
London. “I’m unaware of other treatments, including talking therapies, that
can achieve such fast improvements in people with cancer who are anxious or
depressed.”
The study, which cost £300,000 (most multi-centre trials cost £500,000),
examined 288 people with all types of cancer and at various stages of the
disease who had had anxiety or depression diagnosed after treatment. Many had
severe symptoms such as panic attacks, inability to sleep and needle phobia.
Recent studies have indicated that about half of cancer sufferers get some
such problems in the first year. Half of the subjects in the trial received a
course of weekly aromatherapy massage and half received normal support
services, such as counselling and, in severe cases, psychotherapy and
medication. Their symptoms were monitored for 12 weeks.
The results were so clear that they surprised Ramirez, a professor of
psychiatry. Symptoms lifted far earlier in the aromatherapy group than in the
nonaromatherapy group; within two weeks of the treatment beginning as opposed
to six weeks. And although by ten weeks after the trial started the two groups
showed equal alleviation of symptoms, members of the group receiving
aromatherapy consistently reported more improvement in anxiety than the other
group right though the trial. However, aromatherapy seemed to bring no
significant improvement to pain, fatigue, nausea and vomiting.
The trial didn’t separate out the different elements of aromatherapy —
touch, specific scents (of which 20, including bergamot and lavender, were
used in the trial), time with an understanding therapist — or attempt to
explain which had the beneficial effect. The trial took a cross-section of
practitioners so that it was the therapy not the therapist being evaluated.
“The results show that aromatherapy really accelerates the improvement in
anxiety and depression,” says Ramirez. “And when you consider that many people
in the trial had a limited life expectancy, that acceleration is a huge gain
to health and wellbeing.” Around one in three cancer patients tries
complementary therapies. Aromatherapy and massage are popular, and reported
benefits prompted Ramirez and cancer specialists from Mount Vernon Hospital,
Mid-dlesex, to get the trial rolling in 1998.
They knew that health service managers are generally unwilling to pay for
treatments such as aromatherapy because of the lack of evidence proving its
benefits. But the results of the new trial, also supported by Marie Curie
Cancer Care, Macmillan Cancer Support and Dimbleby Cancer Care, may help to
put aromatherapy on a similar footing to treatments such as physio-therapy,
which are available on the NHS.
A smaller but authoritative trial had already indicated that aromatherapy
can bring a significant reduction in agitation in people with dementia. A
review of evidence in 2004 by the respected Cochrane Collaboration said that
although massage and aromatherapy seemed to improve wellbeing in cancer
patients, evidence was mixed and larger trials into their effect on anxiety
were needed. This new study helps to fill that gap.
Andy Ritchie, the chair of the National Cancer Research Institute Group on
Complementary Therapy, said the findings were impressive and reliable. “They
demonstrate that professional research can be conducted in complementary
therapies.”
For Ramirez, 48, there was an added significance to the trial. Shortly
after it began, she was told she had breast cancer. Knowing of the benefits
that many patients had claimed for aromatherapy, she decided to try it in the
weeks that she was having chemotherapy. “In the face of those strong drugs, it
felt relaxing, like a balm. But it also felt powerful, almost like an antidote
to the poisons in my body.” She has been clear of cancer for five years, and
is relieved that her fear that she would never get back to her research has
not been realised.
For more information on aromatherapy and cancer visit
www.cancerhelp.org.uk
Aromatherapy What is it? Essential oils extracted from plants are
believed to have therapeutic properties. Selected oils - such as lavender,
chamomile and tea tree - are massaged into the skin, put in baths or inhaled.
The term aromatherapy was coined in the 1930s by René-Maurice Gattefosse, a
French chemist.
Claims to help relieve stress-related problems such as anxiety, high
blood pressure and insomnia.
Costs between £30-£60 for an hour.
Contact the Aromatherapy Council, the self-regulatory body of UK
aromatherapists:
www.aromatherapycouncil.co.uk 0870
7743477
WHAT’S THE EVIDENCE?
DR TOBY MURCOTT
Is aromatherapy now a proven treatment?
No, this study provides good-quality evidence that aromatherapy can relieve
anxiety in cancer patients. It says nothing about its effectiveness for other
conditions.
Which bit of the treatment worked?
Separate studies suggest that aroma, massage and a sympathetic ear can all
relieve anxiety. This research, though, looked at all three together and hints
that aromatherapy may be more than the sum of its parts. Clinical research
typically copes best with studying one thing at a time, often breaking down a
treatment into its components. Many complementary practitioners argue that
this is unworkable with their therapies. This research lends weight to that
argument but is not conclusive.
Is it safe?
Plant essential oils can contain chemicals that might have a direct effect
on the patient or react with prescription medicines. One possible benefit of
this research is a more open discussion of any hazards. Complementary
therapies are often seen as outside medicine and there is some evidence that
patients are reluctant to discuss them with doctors.
Dr Toby Murcott is a former BBC science correspondent
