Agitation can influence the level of independence afforded to nursing home patients.

Here’s a study of the effectiveness of lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) in treating agitation in people with dementia.

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Abdominal massage using two drops of lavender (Lavandula officinalis), one drop of clary sage (Salvia sclarea), and one drop of rose (Rosa centifolia) in 5 mL of almond oil was more effective than no treatment or almond oil alone.

Here are the details.

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Here are the results. Would you say that aromatherapy was effective?

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In an earlier post it was concluded that lavender oil treatments might be helpful for treating insomnia in adults. Children with autism often have sleep difficulties. But this latest study suggests it does not appear that their sleep patterns are altered by this treatment.

Here are the details of the study. Do you agree with the conclusions?
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The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has published a survey on the extent of insomnia and use of CAM in Americans. WebMD summarizes the findings here.

• 35 million adults regularly had insomnia in 2002
• 1.6 million of them tried CAM to get some sleep

Most often they used herbs and vitamins, or mind-body therapies. Most CAM treatments for insomnia are not well studied, although two studies of inhaled lavender oil have been published, and are reviewed here.

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