AROMATHERAPY CAN HELP DEMENTIA

Geriatric patients with dementia suffer from agitation, depression, and delusions, and show troublesome behaviors such as wandering, aggressiveness, and sleep disturbance. Smelling lemon balm and lavender oil seems to help, report a team of British researchers. In their study reported in the British Medical Journal, they compared aroma therapy with a control placebo and found that the lemon/lavender treatment was significantly effective in reducing agitation and generally improving quality-of-life variables. Additionally, there were no side effects such as usually observed with sedatives.