Efficacy of smelling peppermint essential oil on patients with nausea referred to emergency department of Sina Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Nausea and vomiting are common problems in patients referred to the emergency department. Medical treatments, although they relieve the patient's nausea and vomiting, can have unpleasant and sometimes dangerous side effects as well as serious drug interactions. Therefore, affordable, available and easy to use new non-pharmacological methods have been introduced for therapeutic purposes in patients.Therefore, in this study, the effects of aromatherapy with peppermint essential oil on nausea and vomiting were considered. Objective: Efficacy of smelling peppermint essential oil on nausea of the patients referred to emergency department of Sina Hospital. Method: This study was a randomized, single-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial on patients with nausea and vomiting, 138 patients were randomly divided into 3 groups of 46, including: the first group of peppermint essential oil (3 times). Deep inhalation), the second group received intravenous ondansetron (8 mg) with placebo saline, and the third group received intravenous ondansetron (8 mg) with peppermint essential oil. At the beginning of treatment and 5, 10, 20, 30 and 60 minutes after the start of treatment, the severity of nausea and vomiting and pain caused by nausea were measured using VNS visual evaluation criteria. Results: The effect of aromatherapy with peppermint essential oil on nausea was very significant and in 5,10,20,30,60 minutes between the group 1 (receiving peppermint essential oil) and the group 3 (peppermint essential oil and intravenous ondansetron with the group 2 (ondansetron receiving) There was a statistically significant difference (P-value = ˂0.001), But in reducing vomiting and pain the effects were similar to intravenous ondansetron. Conclusion: Response to Aromatherapy with peppermint essential oil in the form of 3 deep inhalations in reducing nausea, vomiting and pain, in patients referred to the emergency department, is much more effective than intravenous ondansetron.