Lavender Oil Appears Effective in Reducing Patient Need for Addictive Opiates

The departments of Anesthesiology and Surgery at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York including Dr. Christine Ren-Fielding and Dr. George Fielding conducted a study to see if aromatherapy could reduce the need for postoperative pain killers for patients undergoing Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding (LAGB). The study specifically looked at lavender oil and its effect on patients’ desire for morphine.

Many opioid addicts trace their addiction to pain relievers. While painkillers are effective and offer tremendous relief to patients who have undergone surgery, the medical community agrees that reducing the amount of opiates taken is a good practice. This study is a first look at how aromatherapy may help reduce the number of opiates taken after laparoscopic surgery.

Study Overview

The study used the classic placebo method. In this method, there are at least two groups. One group, a control group, is provided with a standard experience. Subjects in variable groups have a similar experience, but are given whatever is being tested.

In this case, the doctors, including Dr. Christine Ren-Fielding and Dr. George Fielding, wanted to evaluate whether or not aromatherapy, specifically lavender oil, quelled a need for morphine in 54 patients who underwent LAGB. Patients out of surgery had oil applied to their oxygen face masks upon arrival in the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU). The control group had unscented baby oil applied to their masks. The variable group had lavender oil applied to theirs.

Both the control and variable groups had their postoperative pain treated with morphine. Patients were asked to rate their pain according to the standard scale of 0-10 at 5, 30, and 60 minute intervals. In addition to patient input, the doctors also evaluated their sedation level using the Observer Assessment of Alertness/Sedation scale, which ranks alertness from 0-5. Other data analyzed was the amount of opioids, NRS, OAA/S, PACU discharge time, and occurrence of side effects.

Findings

As with most studies, patients were matched to get the best data. For this study they were comparable among demographics, intraoperative drug use, and surgical time. The study found that 82% of the control group, those not receiving lavender oil, required analgesics for postoperative pain whereas only 46% of the variable group, those receiving lavender oil, did. Of note: the patients using lavender needed significantly less morphine than those who did not. Dr. Christine Ren-Fielding, Dr. George Fielding and the other members of the research team are encouraged and seek to further research aromatherapy as a way to reduce the amount of opioids taken post-surgery.