Effects of inhaled ginger aromatherapy on chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and health-related quality of life in women with breast cancer. Issue 3 (June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lua, Pei Lin; Salihah, Noor; Mazlan, Nik
• Is Part Of: Complementary therapies in medicine. Volume 23:Issue 3(2015)
• Page Start: 396
• Page End: 404
• Publication Date: 2015-06
• Subjects: Alternative medicine -- Periodicals; Complementary Therapies -- Periodicals; Médecines parallèles -- Périodiques; Thérapeutique -- Périodiques; Alternative medicine; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 615.5
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ctim.2015.03.009
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0965-2299

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="author" id="abs0005"> <title id="sect0005">Summary</title> <sec> <title id="sect0010">Objective</title> <p id="spar0005">To assess the efficacy of inhaled ginger aromatherapy on nausea, vomiting and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in chemotherapy breast cancer patients.</p> </sec> <sec> <title id="sect0015">Design</title> <p id="spar0010">Single-blind, controlled, randomized cross-over study. Patients received 5-day aromatherapy treatment using either ginger essential oil or fragrance-matched artificial placebo (ginger fragrance oil) which was instilled in a necklace in an order dictated by the treatment group sequence.</p> </sec> <sec> <title id="sect0020">Setting</title> <p id="spar0015">Two oncology clinics in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia.</p> </sec> <sec> <title id="sect0025">Main outcome measures</title> <p id="spar0020">VAS nausea score, frequency of vomiting and HRQoL profile (EORTC QLQ-C30 scores).</p> </sec> <sec> <title id="sect0030">Results</title> <p id="spar0025">Sixty female patients completed the study (age = 47.3 ± 9.26 years; Malay = 98.3%; on highly emetogenic chemotherapy = 86.7%). The VAS nausea score was significantly lower after ginger essential oil inhalation compared to placebo during acute phase (<italic>P</italic> = 0.040) but not sustained for overall treatment effect (treatment effect: <italic>F</italic> = 1.82, <italic>P</italic> = 0.183; time effect: <italic>F</italic> = 43.98, <italic>P</italic> < 0.001; treatment × time effect: <italic>F</italic> = 2.04; <italic>P</italic> = 0.102). Similarly, there was no significant effect of aromatherapy on vomiting [<italic>F</italic>(1, 58) = 0.29, <italic>P</italic> = 0.594]. However, a statistically significant change from baseline for <italic>global health status</italic> (<italic>P</italic> < 0.001) was detected after ginger essential oil inhalation. A clinically relevant 10 points improvement on <italic>role functioning</italic> (<italic>P</italic> = 0.002) and <italic>appetite loss</italic> (<italic>P</italic> < 0.001) were also documented while patients were on ginger essential oil.</p> </sec> <sec> <title id="sect0035">Conclusion</title> <p id="spar0030">At present time, the evidence derived from this study is not sufficiently convincing that inhaled ginger aromatherapy is an effective complementary therapy for CINV. The findings for HRQoL were however encouraging with significant improvement in several domains.</p> </sec> </abstract>