Evaluating the effect of Melissa Officinalis tea and Matricaria Chamomilla tea on anxiety of patients after lower limb orthopedic surgery

Anxiety is one of the most important symptoms after orthopedic surgery which can have various side effects and negatively affect the process of recovery after surgery. The present study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the effect of Melissa Officinalis tea and Matricaria Chamomilla tea on anxiety of patients after lower limb orthopedic surgery.

This was a randomized controlled trial which was conducted on 96 patients after lower-limb orthopedic surgery in Ayatollah Kashani hospital in Shahrekord, Iran. Patients were selected with convenience sampling method and allocated to either Melissa Officinalis, Chamomile or control group. For Melissa Officinalis group, 1g of Melissa tea, for Chamomile group 1g chamomile tea and for control group black tea was prescribed 3 times a day. Anxiety of participants was evaluated before start of interventions and after each step of interventions using Spielberger’s state anxiety inventory. The mean score of anxiety before interventions and the mean changes of anxiety score after each step of interventions compared between groups. Data were analyzed with descriptive and analytical statistics using SPSS software.

the results of Tukey’s post-hoc test showed that after the second step of interventions till the last step, the mean change of anxiety score in Melissa Officinalis and Chamomile group was significantly greater than in the control group (P<0.05).   

The results of this study show that prescription of Melissa Officinalis and Chamomile tea is effective in reducing anxiety of patients after lower limb orthopedic surgery.