Stress, Psychological Clinical Trial
Official title:
Stress Relief Properties of a Cosmetic Routine: Psychobiological Evidence
Everyday life psychosocial challenges may negatively impact health and well-being,
contributing to the onset and/or progression of psychological and psychosomatic disorders.
Pharmacological treatments can moderate our stress response, but they usually bring about
addiction/tolerance and a number of other side effects. Therefore, it is relevant to identify
alternative stress relief strategies that are devoid of these unwanted drawbacks. Moreover,
the effects of such alternative interventions should be objectively quantified by means of
reliable psychobiological parameters. The goal of this study was to quantify the acute and
persistent effects of a cosmetic routine based on the self-administration of a cream enriched
with essential oils, namely Juniperus Phoenicea gum extract, Copaifera Officinalis resin,
Aniba Rosodora wood oil, and Juniperus Virginiana. This aim was achieved by measuring the
(re-)activity of the autonomic nervous system (via heart variability indexes) and the
hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis (via salivary cortisol levels), as well as through
psychometric and behavioral assessments.
Participants' informed consent signature for adhesion at the study was initially requested.
With their acceptance, parameters were recorded anonimously, identified by their initials and
an alphanumeric code.
Data were transferred on Excel worksheets, utilized for descriptive analysis related at every
variable. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 25 software package and
statistical significance was set at p<0.05.
Everyday life psychosocial challenges may negatively impact health and well-being,
contributing to the onset and/or progression of psychological and psychosomatic disorders.
Pharmacological treatments can moderate our stress response, but they usually bring about
addiction/tolerance and a number of other side effects. Therefore, it is relevant to identify
alternative stress relief strategies that are devoid of these unwanted drawbacks. Moreover,
the effects of such alternative interventions should be objectively quantified by means of
reliable psychobiological parameters.
The goal of this study was to quantify the acute and persistent effects of a cosmetic routine
based on the self-administration of a cream (DAVC) enriched with essential oils, namely
Juniperus Phoenicea gum extract, Copaifera Officinalis resin, Aniba Rosodora wood oil,
Juniperus Virginiana. This aim was achieved by measuring the (re-)activity of the autonomic
nervous system (via heart variability indexes) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical
axis (via salivary cortisol levels), as well as through psychometric and behavioral
assessments.
Fourty women, 25-50 years old, were instructed for a correct mode of self administration of
the cream. On day 0, women came to the lab and were instrumented for electrocardiographic
signal (ECG) recordings. Initially, a 10-min ECG was collected in resting conditions
(baseline). Then, two 20-min ECGs were recorded, each following the self-administration
(3-min duration) of the DAVC and a placebo cream (PLAC), in a randomized order. At the end of
the baseline and the two post-cream administration recordings, saliva samples were collected.
From day 1 to 28, subjects self-administered (at home, twice a day, at wake-up and bed time)
either DAVC (n=20) or PLAC (n=20).
On day 29, they returned to the lab and ECGs and underwent a stress test (Trier Social Stress
Test, TSST). The test lasted 10 min and consisted in a stress interview (5 min), immediately
followed by an arithmetic task. ECGs were collected in baseline (10 min), test (10 min), and
recovery (20 min) phases. Saliva samples were collected at the end of the baseline and the
middle and the end of the recovery phase. The subjects filled a number of psychological
questionnaires, including Profile of Mood States (POMS, on day 0 and 29) and STAI-Y1 (on day
29). In addition, subjects were videorecorded during the TSST, in order to quantify their non
verbal behavior patterns (via ECSI).
A single, self-administration of DAVC (day 0) produced a significant, acute potentiation of
parasympathetic neural modulation (HF index: 25% increase as to baseline), whereas PLAC
produced only a modest change (3% increase). DAVC provoked a modest (10%), non significant
reduction of cortisol levels, which was similar to that induced by PLAC.
Prolonged DAVC self-administration (4 weeks) produced: (i) a significant inhibition of
stress-induced cortisol elevation on day 29 (55% increase as compared to pre-stress value in
DAVC group, 75% in PLAC group); (ii) a significant improvement of mood profile (POMS test) on
day 29 compared to day 0; (iii) a reduction of perceived anxiety (STAI-Y1 score) at the end
of the TSST; (iv) significantly lower scores of behavioral patterns linked to anxiety,
motivational conflict and avoidance and higher scores of affiliation during the TSST, as
compared to PLAC group.
These autonomic neural, neuroendocrine and psychological data suggest that a cream enriched
with essential oils has both acute and long-term stress-reduction effects on human
psychophysiology. Acute effects involve a potentiation of the parasympathetic component of
autonomic neural regulation, which is usually associated with well-being, relaxation and
resilience. The long-term effects point to a generalized stress-relief property, involving
both the hormonal and psychological sides of stress adaptation.
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