Effect of clary sage oil as an aromatherapy on cardiac autonomic function among patients with premenstrual syndrome – A randomized controlled study

Background Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is common among women in their reproductive age across the world and complementary therapies are being widely used in the management of PMS. Aromatherapy is one such complementary therapy and the objective of the current study is to evaluate its immediate effect on cardiac autonomic function among patients with PMS. Methodology A total of 60 women with PMS were randomly allocated to either intervention group (clary sage aroma exposure; n = 30) or control group (water exposure; n = 30). Aroma exposure with aroma oil or water was given using aroma care diffuser. Short term HRV was measured at baseline and 10, and 20 min after inhalation. Results Immediately after aroma exposure, the time domain parameters of short term HRV showed a significant (P  Conclusion The present study showed that inhalation of clary oil aromatherapy act as a potential therapeutic modality to improves the autonomic function towards vagal tone domination. Further studies with longer duration of aroma inhalations are required to warrant our finding.