5. Discussion
The study design used two separate aromatherapy interventions,
inhalation and the m’technique (touch), and both intervention
methods employed the same essential oil blend. Although the
m’technique demonstrated a higher statistically significant difference
from the control group than the inhalation technique, both
aromatherapy methods showed improvement. Since the final GAD
mean score for inhalation showed a significant difference from the
control group, this suggests the inhalation technique may require
longer or more frequent exposure to enact a positive cumulative
effect upon anxiety.
If future studies are conducted, it is recommended to have larger
sample sizes with more frequent treatments (4 times per week). In
addition to the population in this study, the author recommends
conducting aromatherapy studies for those diagnosed with anxiety
and/or depression in the general population.