Comparing the effects of aromatherapy and mindfulness meditation on university students’ stress levels

Abstract

Background and Aims: Aromatherapy is the combination of aroma and therapy and literally means treatment with fragrance. Massage, inhalation, compresses, and baths are the most common applications of aromatherapy. According to several studies, inhalation of essential oils greatly reduces anxiety and tension. On the other hand, the last 30 years has seen an increase in the popularity of mindfulness meditation for reducing the risk of depressive relapse while also lowering stress and anxiety levels. The aim of this study is to compare the effects of aromatherapy and mindfulness practices on university students’ stress levels. Methods: A total of 78 Altınbaş University students participated in this study, which uses the Beck Depression Inventory-II and Perceived Stress Scale to collect data. Five experimental groups were created in which aromatherapy and mindfulness meditation studies were applied, with a control group also used in an experimental investigation that includes pretest and posttest assessments. Cedrus atlantica (Endl.) G.Manetti ex Carrière (CA) and Cananga odorata (Lam.) Hook.f. & Thomson (CO) essential oils were used in the aromatherapy applications. Results: As a result, this study has found the participants’ anxiety levels to decrease, with all intervention groups having lower posttest scores than their pretest levels. Conclusion: The results of this study show a decrease in post-intervention test scores for all experimental groups compared to the control group, particularly for the groups where aromatherapy and mindfulness meditation were administered together. Aromatherapy and mindfulness emerge as viable therapeutic options for anxiety, with CA and CO essential oils being particularly useful.

Keywords

• Aromatherapy
• Cananga odorata
• Cedrus atlantica
• essential oils
• mindfulness meditation

References

1. Beck, A.T., Steer, R.A., Ball, R., & Ranieri, W. (1996). Comparison of Beck Depression Inventories -IA and -II in psychiatric outpatients. Journal of Personality Assessment, 67(3), 588-597. google scholar
2. Chen, P.J., Chou, C.C., Yang,L., Tsai,Y.L., Chang,Y.C., & Liaw,J.J. (2017). Aromatherapy Massage on Pregnant Women’s Stress and Im-mune Function: A Longitudinal, Prospective, Randomized Con-trolled Trial. Journal ofAlternative and Complementary Medicine, 23(10), 778-786. google scholar
3. Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24, 385-396. google scholar
4. Durna, U. (2006). Üniversite Öğrencilerinin Stres Düzeylerinin Bazı Değişkenler Açısından İncelenmesi. Atatürk Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Dergisi, 20(1), 319-343. google scholar
5. Folkman, S. (2020). Stress: appraisal and coping. In In Encyclopedia of behavioral medicine (pp. 2177-2179). Cham: Springer Interna-tional Publishing. google scholar
6. Hongratanaworakit T., & Buchbauer G. (2006). Relaxing Effect of Ylang ylang Oil on Humans after Transdermal Absorption. Phyto-therapy Research., 20, 758-763. google scholar
7. Jalali-Heravi, M., Parastar, H., & Sereshti, H. (2010). Towards obtaining more information from gas chromatography-mass spectrometric data of essential oils: An overview of mean field independent com-ponent analysis. Journal of Chromatography A, 1217(29), 4850-4861. google scholar
8. Kabat-Zinn, J. (1982). An outpatient program in behavioral medi-cine for chronic pain patients based on the practice of mindful-ness meditation: theoretical considerations and preliminary re-sults. General Hospital Psychiatry, 4(1), 33-47. google scholar

9. Lucchesi, M. E., Chemat, F., & Smadja, J. (2004). Solvent-free micro-wave extraction of essential oil from aromatic herbs: comparison with conventional hydro-distillation. Journal of Chromatography a, 1043(2), 323-327. google scholar
10. Machado, K. da C., Islam, M. T., Ali, E. S., Rouf, R., Uddin, S. J., Dev, S., Shilpi, J. A., Shill, M. C., Reza, H. M., Das, A. K., Shaw, S., Mubarak, M. S., Mishra, S. K., & Melo-Cavalcante, A. A. de C. (2018). A system-atic review on the neuroprotective perspectives of beta-caryo-phyllene. Phytotherapy Research, 32(12), 2376-2388. https://doi. org/10.1002/ptr.6199 google scholar
11. Mehta, S., & MacGillivray, M. S. (2016). Analysis of Stress Relief Ef-fect by Use of Aroma-Therapeutic Textiles. AATCC Journal of Re-search, 3(5), 38-44. google scholar
12. Price S., & Price L. (2011). Aromatherapy for health professionals. Elsevier Health Sciences. google scholar
13. Redhwan, A.A.N., Sami, A.R., Karim, A.J., Chan, R., & Zaleha, M.I. (2009). Stress and Coping Strategies Among Management and Science University Students: A Qualitative Study. The International Medical Journal, 8(2), 11-16. google scholar
14. Ross, S.E., Niebling, B.C., & Heckert, T.M. (1999). Sources of Stress among College Students. College Student Journal, 33(2), 1-16. google scholar
15. Schneiderman, N., Ironson, G., & Siegel, S.D. (2005). Stress and health: psychological, behavioral, and biological determinants. Annual Reviewof Clinical Psychology, 1, 607-628. google scholar
16. Shapiro, S.L., Astin, J.A., Bishop, S.R., & Cordova, M. (2005). Mindfulness-based stress reduction for health care profes-sionals: results from a randomized trial. International journal of stress management, International Journal of Stress Manage-ment, 12(2), 164. google scholar
17. Shapiro, S.L., Schwartz, G.E., & Bonner, G. (1998). Effects of mind-fulness-based stress reduction on medical and premedical stu-dents. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 21(6), 581-599. google scholar
18. Shaw, P.E. (1979). Review of quantitative analyses of citrus es-sential oils. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 27(2), 246-257. google scholar
19. Soto-Vasquez, M.R., & Alvarado-Garcfa, PA.A. (2017). Aroma-therapy with two essential oils from Satureja genre and mind-fulness meditation to reduce anxiety in humans. Journal of Tra-ditional and Complementary Medicine, 7(1), 121-125. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jtcme.2016.06.003 google scholar
20. Suyono, H., Jong, F.X., & Wijaya, S. (2020). Lavender, cedarwood, and vetiver balms work as an anti-stress treatment by reducing plasma cortisol levels. Recordsof Natural Products, 8, 10-12. google scholar
21. Tisserand, R., & Young, R. (2013). Essential oil safety: a guide for health care professionals. Elsevier Health Sciences. google scholar
22. Ullah, H., Minno, A., Santarcangelo, C., Khan, H., & Daglia, M. (2021). Improvement of oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction by p-caryophyllene: a focus on the nervous system. Antioxidants, 10(4), 546-568. google scholar
23. Zhang, N., Zhang, L., Feng, L., & Yao, L. (2016). The anxiolytic effect of essential oil of Cananga odorata exposure on mice and deter-mination of its major active constituents. Phytomedicine, 23(14), 1727-1734. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phymed.2016.10.017 google scholar
24. Zhang, N., Zhang, L., Feng, L., & Yao, L. (2018). Cananga odorata essential oil reverses the anxiety induced by 1-(3-chlorophenyl) piperazine through regulating the MAPK pathway and sero-tonin system in mice. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 219, 23-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jep.2018.03.013 google scholar
25. Zhou, X., Guo, J., Lu, G., Chen, C., Xie, Z., Liu, J., & Zhang, C. (2020). Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on anxiety symp-toms in young people: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychiatry Research, 289, 113002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psy-chres.2020.113002 google scholar