Exploring the effects of aromatherapy and acupoint herbal patching on fatigue and sleep disorders in people living with HIV: a pilot randomized trial

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of aromatherapy and acupoint herbal patching on fatigue and sleep disorders in people living with HIV (PLWH). Aromatherapy and acupoint herbal patching are ancient alternative therapies in traditional Chinese medicine. We randomly selected 90 patients from the Nanjing Public Health Medical Center in China and divided them into three groups: aromatherapy group, acupoint herbal patching group and control group. They were supposed to fill in the Pittsburgh Sleepiness Index Scale (PSQI), the Piper Fatigue Scale (PFS), and the Liver Depression and Spleen Deficiency Insomnia Symptoms Scale (LDSSIPS) before and after the intervention. The results showed that the difference between the PSQI score and fatigue score of the aromatherapy group and acupressure group before and after the intervention was statistically significant (P < 0.05), and the difference between the scores of the three groups after the intervention was statistically significant (P < 0.05). This study found that aromatherapy and acupoint herbal patching could effectively alleviate fatigue of PLWH and improve the quality of sleep, and that the therapeutic effect of the aromatherapy group was comparable with that of the acupoint herbal patching group.