Aromatherapy Can Reduce Symptoms of Chronic Pain and Dementia in Elderly
Commissioned by Po Leung Kuk, the study was conducted on 212 elders with chronic pain or dementia from 16 Po Leung Kuk elderly nursing homes and elderly day-care centres. The participants, who were 80 years old on average, were randomly assigned to 3 groups. The aromatherapy massage group received a 15-min session of aromatherapy massage twice a week, while those in the aromatherapy inhalation group wore an aromatherapy brooch for 2 hours twice a week. Participants in the control group went about their normal lives as before and did not receive any aromatherapy. All participants were evaluated just before and immediately after the 16-week intervention period.
Prof Tsang and his research team found that the aromatherapy massage group and the aromatherapy inhalation group started to show significant improvements from the 8th week onwards. There was a 17% decrease on the pain index and a rise of 34% in activity levels by chronic pain sufferers in the aromatherapy massage group. Meanwhile, dementia sufferers in the aromatherapy inhalation group saw their anxiety levels and sleeping problems substantially improve by 43%. The researchers also found that the anxiety levels of the carers of the dementia sufferers in the aromatherapy inhalation group had also decreased by 54%.
“Unlike nerves for other senses, nerves from the olfactory system [for smell] connect directly with the brain’s limbic system, which is involved in forming emotions and memories,” said Prof Tsang. This implies that smell quickly affects emotion. Prof Tsang referred to the gate control theory of pain perception to explain how non-pain signals produced by massage close nerve ‘gates’ in the spinal cord to pain signals, preventing the pain signals from reaching the brain.
Po Leung Kuk now plans to offer aromatherapy to its elderly service recipients with chronic pain or dementia in the future, which could benefit some 2,700 elders each year.
As different essential oils can produce different side effects depending on the concentration and usage, Prof Tsang also iterated that aromatherapy should always be conducted by a trained professional and that the treatment may be unsuitable for some people.
The above content comes from the FHSS Health News (April 2019 issue) published by the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, PolyU
