Trial reportFrontiers in endocrinology2024
Sex differences in the effects of aromatherapy on anxiety and salivary oxytocin levels.
Trial report in Frontiers in endocrinology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A comprehensive analysis of oxytocin: a potential brain-based treatment to regulate obesity.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Pooled it
- Ethnobotanical Uses and Phytochemical, Pharmacological, Behavioral, and Toxicological Effects ofMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Effect of Lavender Essential Oil-based Aromatherapy on Anxiety: An Overview of Results of Recent Randomized Controlled Trials.Current pharmaceutical design · 2026Review
- The Role of Oxytocin and Sex in Analgesic Placebo-Response: Exploratory Analysis from a Sham Randomized Clinical Trial in Chronic Back-Pain Patients.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- OXTR rs2254298 polymorphism influences escitalopram response in Generalized Anxiety Disorder: a sex-specific role for oxytocin signaling.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Sex Differences in the Anxiolytic Properties of Common Cannabis Terpenes, Linalool and β-Myrcene, in Mice.NeuroSci · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: Aromatherapy is a holistic healing method to promote health and well-being by using natural plant extracts. However, its precise mechanism of action and influence on the endocrine system remains unclear. Since recent studies reported that a neuropeptide, oxytocin, can attenuate anxiety, we hypothesized that if oxytocin secretion is promoted through aromatherapy, it may improve mood and anxiety. The present study is aimed to investigate the relationship between oxytocin and the effects of aromatherapy with lavender oil on anxiety level, by measuring salivary oxytocin levels in healthy men and women. Methods: We conducted a randomized open crossover trial in 15 men and 10 women. Each participant received a placebo intervention (control group) and aromatherapy with lavender oil (aromatherapy group). For the aromatherapy group, each participant spent a 30-min session in a room with diffused lavender essential oil, followed by a 10-min hand massage using a carrier oil containing lavender oil. Anxiety was assessed using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) before the intervention, 30-min after the start of intervention, and after hand massage, in both groups. Saliva samples were collected at the same time points of the STAI. Results: In women, either aromatherapy or hand massage was associated with a reduction in anxiety levels, independently. Moreover, salivary oxytocin levels were increased after aromatherapy. On the other hand, in men, anxiety levels were decreased after aromatherapy, as well as after hand massage, regardless of the use of lavender oil. However, there were no significant differences in changes of salivary oxytocin levels between the control and aromatherapy groups during the intervention period. Interestingly, there was a positive correlation between anxiety levels and salivary oxytocin levels before the intervention, but a negative correlation was observed after hand massage with lavender oil. Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that in women, aromatherapy with lavender oil attenuated anxiety with increase in oxytocin level in women, whereas in men, there was no clear relationship of aromatherapy with anxiety or oxytocin levels but, there was a change in correlation between anxiety and oxytocin. The results of the present study suggest that the effect of aromatherapy can vary depending on sex.
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