The effects of lavender, rosemary and orange essential oils on memory problems and medication adherence among patients undergoing hemodialysis: A parallel randomized controlled trial.

Background: hemodialysis patients' daily use of medications is essential for the disease management. One of the causes of medication non-adherence is that they forget to take medications, and non-adherence to treatment following memory loss is a common problem in patients on hemodialysis.

Objective: the current study aimed to compare the effects of Lavender, Rosemary, and Orange essential oils on memory problems (both retrospective and prospective aspects of memory) and medication adherence in hemodialysis patients.

Design: this study was a parallel randomized controlled trial.

Setting: the two main hemodialysis centers in Kerman, southeastern Iran.

Participants: eighty-six patients under chronic hemodialysis were randomly allocated into four groups (Lavender, Rosemary, Orange, and control) by simple randomization method.

Interventions: The samples of the intervention group, in addition to routine care, received Lavender or Rosemary or Orange essential oils three times a week for a month. A gauze containing with five drops of the essential oil was placed at a distance of 10 cm from the patient's nose one hour after hemodialysis, and the patient was asked to inhale it for 30 min.

Main Outcome Measures: retrospective and prospective memory, and medication adherence were assessed before, immediately and one month after the intervention.

Results: prospective memory problems in Lavender, Rosemary and Orange groups did not change significantly over time (P > 0.05). Prospective memory problems in the control group had a significant increase (P = 0.002). No significant difference was found in prospective memory problems between the four groups (P > 0.05). Retrospective memory problems in the Lavender and Rosemary groups decreased significantly over time (P <0.05). The decreasing retrospective memory problems in the Orange and control groups were not statistically significant over time (P > 0.05). There was no significant difference in retrospective memory problems between the four groups (P > 0.05). No significant difference was observed between the four groups in medication adherence score during the study (P > 0.05).

Conclusion: aromatherapy with Lavender or Rosemary can reduce some memory problems in hemodialysis patients. However, the results of this study could not justify the effect of aromatherapy on the rate of medication adherence in patients on hemodialysis, so further studies are required.

Trial Registration: IRCT20190428043410N1.