Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Chaoyang University of Technology, Taichung, Taiwan.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2013;2013:853809. doi: 10.1155/2013/853809. Epub 2013 Oct 21.
People use aromatherapy to relieve the symptoms of physical and psychological stress. However, previous studies have not precisely clarified a scientific basis for the beneficial effects of aromatherapy. Therefore, the overall purpose of this study was to elucidate the beneficial effect of aromatherapy in relieving work-related stress. Twenty-nine elementary school teachers from Taiwan participated in this study. The experimental procedures comprised 2 phases. First, we verified the effect of aromatherapy by conducting 2 blind tests. We used natural bergamot essential oil extracted from plants and synthesized a chemical essential oil as the placebo to do the aromatherapy. Second, we analyzed the performance of the aromatherapy treatment on the teachers who had various workloads. We measured the teachers' heart rate variability to evaluate their autonomic nervous system activity. The results show that only the natural bergamot essential oil had an effect and that the aromatherapy treatment relieved work-related stress of teachers with various workloads. However, the aromatherapy treatment had a weak effect on young teachers who had a heavy workload. Moreover, the aromatherapy treatment exhibited no effect on teachers who belong to the abnormal body mass index subgroup having a heavy workload.
人们使用芳香疗法来缓解身体和心理压力的症状。然而，以前的研究并没有明确阐明芳香疗法有益效果的科学依据。因此，本研究的总体目的是阐明芳香疗法缓解与工作相关的压力的有益效果。来自台湾的 29 名小学教师参与了这项研究。实验程序包括 2 个阶段。首先，我们通过进行 2 个盲测来验证芳香疗法的效果。我们使用从植物中提取的天然佛手柑精油和合成的化学精油作为安慰剂进行芳香疗法。其次，我们分析了对具有不同工作量的教师进行芳香疗法治疗的效果。我们测量了教师的心率变异性，以评估他们的自主神经系统活动。结果表明，只有天然佛手柑精油有效果，而且芳香疗法治疗缓解了具有不同工作量的教师的与工作相关的压力。然而，芳香疗法治疗对工作量大的年轻教师效果较弱。此外，芳香疗法治疗对属于体重指数异常亚组且工作量大的教师没有效果。
