Essential oil therapy in rheumatic diseases: A systematic review

This paper aims to review articles that have evaluated the role of essential oil therapy in patients with rheumatic diseases.

Systematic review. No study design or language limitation was applied.

We have identified 13 articles, most of them were used in osteoarthritis (n = 4), rheumatoid arthritis (n = 3) and fibromyalgia (n = 3). Two studies included patients with RA and OA (n = 2). The number of people involved in the study varied from 9 to 162, where female sex was observed in 60-100%. The age of the patients ranged from 36 to 78.3 years old and disease duration 1-11.67 years. The lavender essential oil was the most used, and then Ginger oil, Rosemary oil, and Rosmarinus officinalis. Time of oil use varied from 2 to 12 weeks. Importantly, all studies but one (91.6%) have demonstrated the efficacy of aromatherapy.

There are few reports on essential oils in rheumatic disease, mainly osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and fibromyalgia. All but one study have showed the efficacy of this complementary therapy.