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There is no lack to the purported effects of essential oils on human health and disease; analgesic and calming are two that most clinicians would attest are commonly mentioned by patients who are proponents of these plant extracts. Most evidence steers essential oil use to aromatherapy for such diagnoses as insomnia or anxiety,1 and topically for pain conditions.2,3 This study attempted to show multi-symptom benefits from aromatherapy for patients undergoing an otherwise uncomfortable/painful procedure — trigger point injection.
The study took place in Turkey and involved 66 patients receiving trigger point injections for the first time for myofascial pain syndrome. There were exclusion criteria, such as a lavender allergy, “psychiatric disease” (it wasn’t described whether anxiety or insomnia were included), steroid treatments, and pulmonary conditions, among others.
The 66 study participants were randomly divided into three groups with 22 participants in each one: an aromatherapy group, a placebo group, and a control group. For each group, demographic information was collected, as was information about prior pain-related diagnoses and treatments, current symptoms (Visual Analog Scale [VAS] for pain, completed pre-, mid-, and post-trigger point injection), comfort (General Comfort Questionnaire [GCQ], 48-items, 4-point Likert for each), and anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Index containing 20 items). In addition, saliva was collected before and after each trigger point injection and...