A randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial of a Bach Flower Remedy.

The aimof this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trialwas to investigate the eff|cacyof ‘Five FlowerRemedy’alsoknownasRescueRemedy, forexamination anxiety in healthy university students.One hundred university studentswere recruited.They were registered at theUniversity of Exeter, aged between18 to 65 years, and enrolled to undertake university examinations betweenMay to July1998. Participantswere randomized to take one to four doses of either ‘Five Flower Remedy’or indistinguishable placebo duringday1to 7 of the experiment. Self-reported anxiety was quantif|edusing the 40 -item Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) as the primaryoutcome measure.V|sual analogue scaleswere used as the secondaryoutcomemeasure to allow the determination ofdaily anxiety scores.Forty f|ve percentof volunteers completed the study (21subjects in the experimental and 24 in the placebo group).Reporting of anxiety, as measured by the state component of the STAI at enrolment, was not found to differ between verumandplacebo and no gender differenceswere noted.However, self-reports of trait anxiety were found to be lower inmen compared towomen at enrolment. Eight days before examination, men reported signif|cantly lower levels of state anxiety but no signif|cantdifferenceswere subsequently identif|ed the eveningbefore the examination.No signif|cantdifferenceswere identif|edbetweenorwithin groups formeanvalues of the daily VAS scores or indeed the linear contrast variable constructed to determine any trends associatedwith theweekly VAS reports. It is concluded that ‘Five Flower Remedy’ hadno specif|c effects in treating anxietyunder these trialconditions.# 2001Harcourt Publishers Ltd