Lavender Oil Has Anti-Anxiety Effects and Possibly Antidepressant Effects
An oral preparation of lavender oil called Silexan was previously found to reduce anxiety in people with generalized anxiety disorders or subthreshold anxiety symptoms without causing sedation. It seems to work by inhibiting voltage dependent calcium channels in a manner similar to the anti-anxiety drug pregabalin. Unlike pregabalin, the lavender oil treatment also reduced depression in the people with subthreshold anxiety. Researchers are now exploring lavender oil’s effects on rats who exhibit behaviors that resemble human depression, and on rat and human cells in vitro.
Silexan had positive effects on rats with depression-like behaviors, increasing the time they would swim before giving up in a forced swim test. It also increased the growth of rat and human neurons in a lab setting. These effects are usually connected with activation of a protein called CREB that turns on some genes that affect mood. The researchers, led by Walter Mueller, were able to clarify the pathway for this activation by inhibiting specific kinases, enzymes responsible for transferring phosphates across different molecules. The kinases involved included PKA, PI3K, MAPK and CaMK IV.
Editor’s Note: Oral lavender supplements may help improve anxiety and depression without sedation.
Lavender Oil May Improve Anxiety
An oral preparation of lavender oil called Silexan decreased anxiety significantly more than placebo in a study by S. Kasper et al. published in the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology in 2014.
This randomized double-blind study of 539 patients with Generalized Anxiety Disorder compared two different doses of Silexan (160 mg and 80 mg) with a 20 mg dose of the antidepressant paroxetine and with placebo. Both doses of Silexan reduced anxiety significantly more than placebo did. While paroxetine performed better than placebo, that result did not reach statistical significance.
Sixty percent of the patients who received the 160 mg dose of Silexan showed reductions of 50% in scores on the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA). In addition to its anti-anxiety effects, Silexan was associated with an antidepressant effect, improved general mental health, and improvement in health-related quality of life.
