Effect of aromatherapy with Damask rose on alleviating adults' acute pain severity: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Although recent studies have investigated the analgesic activity of Damask rose using aromatherapy in different painful conditions, the results are inconclusive. Hence, this systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to clarify the effect of aromatherapy with Damask rose on adults' acute pain.

The online databases of MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, ISI web of science, Embase, ProQuest, CENTRAL, CINAHL, SID, and MagIran were searched up to August 10, 2020. The aim of this study was to find randomized controlled trials on the effect of aromatherapy with Damask rose in any form of administration (inhalation, vapor diffusion, and massage) on different types of acute pain in adults. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to assess the methodological quality of the included studies. Moreover, the quality of the evidence was evaluated by the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. Random effects model was applied to pool data using Stata.

A total of 16 studies met the inclusion criteria, of which only one was not included in the meta-analysis. Pooled analysis revealed that aromatherapy with Damask rose reduced the pain severity significantly (WMD: -2.12; 95% CI [-2.85, -1.40]; P < 0.001). Inhalation aromatherapy (WMD: -2.39; 95% CI [-3.31, -1.48]; P < 0.001) and aromatherapy massage (WMD: -1.16; 95% CI [-1.57, -0.75]; P < 0.001) also had significant effects on pain reduction. The quality of evidence was low.

Aromatherapy with Damask rose had a favourable effect on reducing the severity of acute pain in adults. However, there is insufficient evidence for the clinical benefits of aromatherapy with Damask rose due to the low-quality evidence. Accordingly, more high quality randomized clinical trials are needed to make an evidence-based conclusion.