Effect of Aromatherapy with Peppermint Oil on the Severity of Nausea and Vomiting in Pregnancy: A Single-blind, Randomized, Placebo-controlled trial

Background and Aim : Nausea and vomiting are common complaints in the first half of pregnancy. Thesesymptoms can significantly affect a person s personal and professional life. Aromatherapy is one of thetypes of complementary medicine that is used in the treatment of nausea and vomiting. The objective ofthis study was to determine the effect of aromatherapy with peppermint oil on the severity of nausea andvomiting of pregnancy (NVP).Methods : This was a single-blind clinical trial that was conducted on 56 pregnant women with mild tomoderate severity of NVP and 6 to 20 weeks of gestational age. After the determination of gestational ageand base severity of NVP in each woman, they were randomly assigned to one of the two groups:peppermint oil (n=28) or placebo (n=28). Inhalation aromatherapy was done for four days and at the end ofeach day, they responded to the Pregnancy Unique Quantification of Emesis/Nausea questionnaire (PUQE).The data obtained were analyzed with Mann-Whitney test and ANOVA with repeated measures using SPSSsoftware version 22. Also, the level of significance was p<0.05.Results : Although the severity of NVP in each intervention group significantly decreased (p<0.001), thecomparison of the severity of NVP during the study period and at the end of it was not statisticallysignificant between the placebo and intervention groups.Conclusion : According to the possibility of neurological mechanisms causing NVP, the effect ofaromatherapy with peppermint oil and placebo were the same in this study. This similarity can be due topsychological impacts of intervention on pregnant women

کلیدواژه ها:

Aromatherapy ، Inhalation ، Mentha piperita ، Nausea ، Pregnancy ، Vomiting