Damask Rose Aromatherapy and the Anxiety of Endoscopic Candidate Patients: A Clinical Trial

Introduction: Anxiety is one of the common problems among patients before undergoing invasive diagnostic techniques. One of these diagnostic techniques is gastrointestinal endoscopy. Aromatherapy is one of the complementary therapies to reduce anxiety. Objective: This study aimed to determine the effect of aromatherapy with Damask rose on the anxiety of the patients before undergoing endoscopy. Materials and methods: This study is a clinical trial performed on patients referred to the Endoscopy Department of one of the educational and therapeutic centers in Rasht City, Iran, in 2019. The study sample was 70 patients divided into the intervention and control groups. After giving the informed consent form, the samples completed the demographic information questionnaire and Spielberger anxiety questionnaire. The intervention group received aromatherapy with 10% Damask rose essential oil, and the control group received aromatherapy with a placebo for 30 minutes. The anxiety questionnaire was completed again 30 minutes after aromatherapy. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (the paired t test, Chi-square, independent t test, and covariance test). Results: Results showed that the mean ± SD age of participants was 41.05 ±13.15 years in the intervention (ranged 22-65 years) and 45.82 ±16.81 years in the control groups. Most participants were female (57.1%). After the intervention, the mean score of anxiety in the aromatherapy group (39.88±11.51) was lower than that in the control group with placebo (49.94±12.30), which was statistically significant (P=0.001).  Because of significant differences in hospitalization history between the two study groups before the intervention, the covariance test was performed. The results showed no interaction between aromatherapy and hospitalization history. So it seems that the hospitalization variable did not affect post-intervention anxiety. Conclusions: This study showed that aromatherapy with Damask rose essential oil was effective on pre-endoscopic anxiety of the patients. Since complementary medicine is increasingly practiced in nursing care, Damask rose aromatherapy, because of its low cost, safety and simplicity, can be used as a complementary measure to reduce anxiety in patients before endoscopy. However, more studies with intervention, control, and routine groups are needed to confirm the effectiveness of aromatherapy in endoscopy.