Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Clinical Trial
. 2004 Jul-Aug;66(4):599-606.
doi: 10.1097/01.psy.0000132875.01986.47.

Sensory and affective pain discrimination after inhalation of essential oils

Jeffrey J Gedney  1 , Toni L Glover, Roger B Fillingim
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Sensory and affective pain discrimination after inhalation of essential oils

Jeffrey J Gedney et al. Psychosom Med. 2004 Jul-Aug.

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of olfactory absorption of two commonly used therapeutic essential oils on sensory and affective responses to experimentally induced pain.

Methods: A sex-balanced (13 men and 13 women) randomized crossover design was used to obtain pre- and posttreatment change scores for quantitative sensory ratings of contact heat, pressure, and ischemic pain across separate inhalation treatment conditions using essential oil of lavender, essential oil of rosemary, and distilled water (control). Subjective reports of treatment-related changes in pain intensity and pain unpleasantness were obtained for each condition using a visual analog scale. We interpret our findings with respect to the separate dimensions of sensory and affective processing of pain.

Results: Analyses revealed the absence of changes in quantitative pain sensitivity ratings between conditions. However, retrospectively, subjects' global impression of treatment outcome indicated that both pain intensity and pain unpleasantness were reduced after treatment with lavender and marginally reduced after treatment with rosemary, compared with the control condition.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that aromatherapy may not elicit a direct analgesic effect but instead may alter affective appraisal of the experience and consequent retrospective evaluation of treatment-related pain.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources