Firoozeei and colleagues from the Tehran University of Medical Sciences publish a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials looking at the antidepressant effects of Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) (Firoozeei et al., 2021).
Antidepressant drugs, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) that aim at increasing serotonin levels in the brain, are accompanied with a high rate of adverse effects. Due to the limitations of antidepressant drugs, complementary and alternative medecine (CAM) disciplines can offer a valuable therapeutic approach.
While previous reviews report on the anxiolytic action of Lavender (Perry et al., 2012; Donelli et al., 2019), the present study aims at evaluating the antidepressant effects of Lavender in depressed patients or people affected by other diseases with concomitant depressive symptoms.