Sex differences in the effects of aromatherapy on anxiety and salivary oxytocin levels

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Oxytocin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

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.

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.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 15 men taking part.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were young adults and adults, both men and women.

The researchers 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).

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, placebo-controlled and crossover study.

The men were allocated by chance, so the Oxytocin group and the comparison group should start out alike.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Oxytocin group a baseline to be compared against.

In the crossover set-up each of the men took both Oxytocin and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

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.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Oxytocin, Aromatherapy, Saliva, Anxiety, Oils, Volatile, Lavandula and Plant Oils.

The authors tagged it with the keywords hand massage, sex differences and stress.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, placebo-controlled and crossover study of Oxytocin in 15 men.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 7 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2024 (Frontiers in endocrinology), a journal based in Switzerland.

More context: the Oxytocin compound page, all human trials.