Effectiveness of Aromatherapy Massage in the Management of Anxiety and Depression in Patients With Cancer: A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Aromatherapy massage does not appear to confer benefit on cancer patients' anxiety and/or depression in the long-term, but is associated with clinically important benefit up to 2 weeks after the intervention.

Effects of screening for psychological distress on patient outcomes in cancer: A systematic review

“…The effect sizes for outcomes reported in a trial of problem-solving therapy trial [42], comparing problem-solving therapy to a wait-list control (Hedges's g = 3.76) or problem-solving therapy with a significant other to the wait-list control (Hedges's g = 4.30) were exceedingly large. The effect sizes on 2 outcome measures from aromatherapy with massage [45] were small (Hedges's g = 0.17 to 0.22) and not statistically significant. Effect sizes for each individual study are shown in Table 1.…”

“…The other 10 studies included collaborative care interventions [35,37,40,44,46], cognitive behavior therapy [36,39,41], problem solving therapy [42], and aromatherapy massage [45]. Among the drug trials, there was 1 study [38] with at least 64 patients per group, and that study found a small effect size reduction on self-reported depressive symptoms with fluoxetine (Hedges's g = 0.23).…”

“…Total sample size per study ranged from 55 to 472. Of the 14 studies, 7 randomized at least 64 patients per group [35,[37][38][39][40]44,45], which would provide adequate (80%) power to detect a medium effect size (standardized mean difference = 0.50) [48].…”

“…As shown in Table 1, the 14 studies of interventions to reduce psychological distress we reviewed included 12 studies of patients with mixed cancer sites [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45], 1 study with patients with breast or cervical cancer [46], and 1 study with patients with breast cancer only [47]. Total sample size per study ranged from 55 to 472.…”

Alterations in the Th1/Th2 balance in breast cancer patients using reflexology and scalp massage

“…Massage is often combined with aromatherapy, and beneficial effects have been reported previously (52). research designed to evaluate the relative contributions of the extra physical and social contact would be of considerable interest, especially in light of this study's findings.…”