Effect of Lemon Scent on the Anxiety of Cancer Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy; a Clinical Trial

Aims: One of the cancer treatments is chemotherapy. Anxiety is one of the important symptoms of patients undergoing chemotherapy. Considering the effect of lemon aromatherapy on improving anxiety in patients without cancer, maybe it can also improve the anxiety of patients with cancer. This study aimed to determine the possible effect of lemon scent on the nausea and vomiting of patients undergoing chemotherapy. Instrument Methods: This is a one-sided blind clinical trial study, which was carried out on 50 patients undergoing chemotherapy at Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Kashan, Iran in 2021-2022. Patients were randomly divided into two test and control groups. During chemotherapy, three drops of lemon essential oil were used and in the control group, 3cc of water were poured on a paper napkin. The subjects were then asked to breathe normally. This method was used once a week for 4 weeks during chemotherapy. Data were analyzed using SPSS 16 software. Findings: The mean age of intervention and control groups were 52.20±9.63 and 51.48±12.29 years, respectively (p=0.81). The mean duration of the disease of intervention and control groups were 40.04±27.53 and 35.32±19.57 months, respectively (p=0.48). No significant differences were seen between two groups in the demographic characteristics; sex, marital status, education level, underlying disease, and cancer type. The ANOVA test with repeated measures showed no significant decrease in overt and covert anxiety of patients over time (p 0.05). Conclusion: Aromatherapy with lemon essence has no effect on the overt and covert anxiety of the cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.