Lavender Oil Capsules and Depression

Table of Contents

1. The Capsule That Was Studied
2. The 2025 Trial in Major Depression
3. The Comparison With Sertraline
4. Which Symptoms Changed
5. The Trial in Mixed Anxiety and Depression
6. Meta-Analyses and Reviews
7. Other Oral Forms: Tincture, Tea, Syrup and Plain Capsules
8. Inhaled Lavender Is a Separate Body of Research
9. Massage With Lavender Oil
10. The Proposed Mechanism Remains Unsettled
11. Side Effects, Including Burping
12. Withdrawal and Abuse Data
13. Drug Interaction Data
14. Who Funded and Wrote the Trials
15. Lavender and Low Mood in Traditional Use
16. What Is Not Known
17. Key Research Papers
18. Connections
19. Featured Videos

The Capsule That Was Studied

The capsule contains an essential oil steam-distilled from the flowers of Lavandula angustifolia. The 2025 trial report describes it as a proprietary oil that meets the European Pharmacopoeia monograph for lavender oil, made by a standardized process so that batches stay consistent. It comes as an immediate-release soft capsule holding 80 mg of oil, taken once a day.

Its registered use, according to the same papers, is anxiety. A 2025 review by trial authors says it is authorized as a medicine in more than 20 countries. Depression is the newer question, which is why the 2025 trial was run.

Results from this capsule do not automatically apply to other lavender products. None of the trials on this page gave drops of bottled essential oil by mouth, and the inhaled and massage studies further down use different oils, different doses and a different route into the body.

The 2025 Trial in Major Depression

Kasper and colleagues ran a double-blind trial at 53 general, psychiatric and neurological practices in Germany and Poland between October 2020 and April 2023. Of 500 people randomized, 498 were treated and analyzed: 170 on the lavender capsule at 80 mg a day, 171 on sertraline at 50 mg a day and 157 on placebo, for 56 days. Everyone had a mild or moderate episode of major depression, with a score of 19 to 34 on the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale, a clinician-rated scale that runs from 0 to 60. The average starting score was about 23 points.

The main results at week 8:

• Score change: the Montgomery-Åsberg score fell by 12.1 points on the capsule, 12.6 on sertraline and about 10.0 on placebo.
• Difference from placebo: 2.17 points for the capsule (95% confidence interval 0.58 to 3.76) and 2.59 points for sertraline (1.02 to 4.17), both with p below 0.01.
• Response (score down by at least half): 53.5% on the capsule, 54.0% on sertraline, 41.5% on placebo.
• Remission (score below 10): 44.4% on the capsule, 45.2% on sertraline, 32.6% on placebo.
• Number needed to treat: the paper gives 9 for both response and remission on the capsule, and 8 for both on sertraline. That means roughly one extra person improving for every 8 or 9 treated, beyond those who improved on placebo.
• Daily functioning: the Sheehan Disability Scale, which covers work, social life and family life, improved 2.40 points more than placebo on the capsule (1.04 to 3.76, p below 0.001).

Two things put these numbers in proportion. The first is the size of the placebo response: most of the fall in the score, about 10 of the 12 points, also happened on placebo. The second is the benefit threshold. The authors treat a 2-point gap on this scale as clinically meaningful, and the capsule's 2.17 points sits just above that line, with a confidence interval that reaches down to 0.58.

The self-rated scales were weaker. On the Beck Depression Inventory the capsule's advantage over placebo was 1.58 points (p = 0.085), and on the Patient Health Questionnaire it was 0.84 points (p = 0.077). Neither reached the conventional level of significance. A clinician's overall rating of illness did not separate from placebo either (p = 0.111). So the clinician-rated main outcome and the disability scale favoured the capsule, while the patients' own depression ratings moved in the same direction without reaching significance.

The Comparison With Sertraline

The headline comparison is against a standard antidepressant, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, so what the trial was built to do matters. Its stated purpose was to show the capsule beat placebo. Sertraline was included as an active control, to show the trial was capable of detecting an antidepressant effect at all. Comparisons between the capsule and sertraline were only tested descriptively. The trial therefore does not prove the two are equal, although the results for each against placebo were similar in size.

The two treatments differed on the secondary measures:

• Self-rated depression: sertraline separated from placebo on the Beck inventory (2.43 points, p = 0.008) and the Patient Health Questionnaire (1.24 points, p = 0.006). The capsule did not.
• Clinician's overall rating: sertraline separated from placebo (p = 0.020 and p = 0.006 on the two items). The capsule did not.
• Daily functioning: the capsule separated from placebo on the disability scale. Sertraline did not (0.82 points, p = 0.267).

Sertraline was held at 50 mg a day with no dose increase. The authors argue that this is a sufficient dose in mild-to-moderate depression, and they also note that a larger meta-analysis found a bigger sertraline effect (4.15 points) than their 2.59, and they write that their trial may have underestimated the true effects of both treatments. Sertraline's result here was smaller than that larger figure, so the closeness of the two treatments applies to this trial and this dose.

Smaller trials compared lavender in other forms with antidepressants, and they are described under other oral forms. A 2025 review of milder depression also lists lavender among agents reported as effective as antidepressants, on the basis of single studies.

Which Symptoms Changed

A 2026 paper by Möller and colleagues went through the same trial question by question. It is a pre-planned but exploratory analysis, and its authors say it was not controlled for multiple statistical testing. Against placebo, the capsule was ahead on five of nine items: apparent sadness, reported sadness, reduced appetite, concentration difficulties and lassitude (a feeling of slowness and lack of energy). Sertraline was also ahead on five items, and the overall pattern was mainly comparable.

Effects on reduced sleep and pessimistic thoughts were less pronounced for both treatments. The tenth item, suicidal thoughts, could not be analyzed at all, because anyone with suicidal thoughts was excluded or removed from the trial.

The authors read the pattern as an antidepressant effect of its own, not simply a side result of less anxiety. That is their interpretation of exploratory data, and they state that the 0.2-point threshold they used for a meaningful change on a single item has not been validated.

The Trial in Mixed Anxiety and Depression

Before the 2025 trial, the most direct evidence came from a 2016 study of mixed anxiety and depressive disorder, a diagnosis for people with both kinds of symptoms below the level of a full disorder, with neither clearly dominant. Kasper and colleagues randomized 318 adult outpatients to the 80 mg capsule or placebo for 70 days.

• Depression score: the Montgomery-Åsberg score fell 9.2 points on the capsule and 6.1 on placebo (p below 0.001). A 2025 review by trial authors gives an adjusted difference of 3.25 points (1.36 to 5.14).
• Anxiety score: the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale fell 10.8 points on the capsule and 8.4 on placebo (p below 0.01, one-sided).
• Other outcomes: overall clinical outcome, daily living skills and quality of life improved more on the capsule.
• Side effects: burping was the only adverse event substantially more common on the capsule.

The published abstract gives no response or remission rates for this trial.

Three reports with no placebo group point the same way and carry much less weight. An open-label 2012 study gave 47 analyzable people with neurasthenia, post-traumatic stress disorder or somatization disorder the capsule for 6 weeks, and their average score on a depression scale fell by 32.7%. A 2014 retrospective series of 8 people with major depression at a Berlin hospital reported improvement in 6 cases, with the capsule added to an antidepressant. A 2023 letter describes 4 patients with anxiety or depressive symptoms after COVID-19 or after vaccination who improved on 80 or 160 mg a day. Individual cases cannot separate the capsule from natural recovery.

Meta-Analyses and Reviews

Several reviews exist, but they answer different questions, and none of those listed in this section includes the 2025 trial, because their searches or publication came before it.

• Capsule, depressive symptoms in anxiety trials (Bartova 2023): five placebo-controlled trials at 80 mg for 10 weeks. On the single "depressed mood" item of an anxiety scale the difference was 0.21 points on a 0 to 4 scale (95% confidence interval 0.04 to 0.38, p = 0.01), with substantial disagreement between trials (I² = 67%). In the three trials with a full depression scale, the standardized mean difference, a way to compare studies using different scales, was 0.30 in favour of the capsule (0.16 to 0.44, p below 0.01), with no disagreement between trials (I² = 0%). People in these trials had anxiety as the main problem, and the two generalized anxiety trials excluded more severe depression.
• All forms of lavender (Firoozeei 2021): 17 articles, searched to December 2020. The pooled standardized difference was 0.66 favouring lavender (0.46 to 0.85). In people with diagnosed depression it was 0.62 and did not reach significance (p = 0.055), with high disagreement between trials (I² = 88.1%). For oral lavender it was 0.56 (0.05 to 1.07, p = 0.032; I² = 85.2%). The authors call for larger trials with more uniform groups and more rigorous designs.
• All forms, diagnosed depression only (Shamabadi 2023): a systematic review of 7 trials and 852 patients, searched to May 2020. Six trials reported an effect, one of them with lavender added to an antidepressant. The reported side effects included headache and burping. The authors conclude that the results are promising but "not enough to recommend prescribing lavender to depressed patients".
• All forms, broader (Kim 2021): lavender beat placebo or no treatment for depression with an effect size of 0.43 (0.27 to 0.59). The authors note that randomized trials of lavender for depression were scarce.
• International guideline panel (2022): a taskforce of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry and the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments gave lavender its weak grade, "weakly recommended", for unipolar depression and a stronger grade, "provisionally recommended", for anxiety disorders. It raised quality and standardization of plant products as a key limiting issue.
• Scoping review of over-the-counter products (Frost 2025): 209 trials. Lavender appears among products with "limited but promising" evidence for depressive symptoms, well behind the volume of evidence for omega-3 fats, St. John's wort, saffron, probiotics and vitamin D.
• Herbs in general (Yeung 2018): a review of single-herb trials lists lavender among herbs with benefits comparable to standard drugs, and says well-designed larger trials are still needed.

The mixed reviews combine capsules, tinctures, oils and inhalation, and their high disagreement figures reflect that. A pooled number from such different treatments says little about any single product.

Other Oral Forms: Tincture, Tea, Syrup and Plain Capsules

These trials used lavender preparations that are not the standardized oil capsule, in small groups.

• Tincture and imipramine (Akhondzadeh 2003): 45 outpatients with major depression, 4 weeks. Tincture at 60 drops a day was less effective than imipramine at 100 mg a day (p = 0.001). Tincture added to imipramine was more effective than imipramine alone (p below 0.0001). Headache was more common with the tincture, and dry mouth and urinary retention with imipramine.
• Tea and citalopram (Nikfarjam 2013): 80 people with major depression randomized to citalopram 20 mg alone or with lavender infusion. Hamilton depression scores at 8 weeks were 14.8 with the tea and 16.8 without (p below 0.01). There were no significant differences in side effects.
• Dried lavender capsules and fluoxetine (Araj-Khodaei 2020): a pilot of 45 adults split among lavender (2 g a day), lemon balm (2 g a day) and fluoxetine (20 mg a day) for 8 weeks. No significant difference among groups (p = 0.877). There was no placebo group, so the trial cannot show whether all three worked. One person on lavender left because of drowsiness.
• Lavender and dodder syrup against citalopram (Firoozeei 2020): 56 people with major depression and anxious distress, 6 weeks. Depression scores fell in both groups with no significant difference (p = 0.61), and anxiety fell more with the syrup at week 6 (p = 0.007). This is a two-herb formula from Persian medicine, with no placebo group.
• 80 mg oil capsules in women on the pill (Naghdi 2024): 60 women using a combined contraceptive, 56 days. A depression subscale improved by 3.1 points more than placebo at day 56 (p = 0.002). Participants were not selected for diagnosed depression, and the abstract does not say whether the capsule matched the standardized product.
• 80 mg oil capsules after menopause (Haramshahi 2024): 72 women, 60 days. Depression symptoms fell in both the lavender and placebo groups, and the only between-group difference was in sexual function. This is a null result for mood.

Inhaled Lavender Is a Separate Body of Research

The following studies are not capsule studies. Smelling a scent is a different exposure from swallowing a measured dose, and controls were often routine care, so participants could often tell which group they were in. Most trials are small, and many ran in people with another illness who were not diagnosed with depression.

• After stroke (Yin 2024): 40 people with post-stroke depression slept with a bag of lavender microcapsules on or under the pillow, or an empty bag, for 4 weeks. Depression and sleep scores improved more with lavender (p below 0.05).
• Older adults at home (Ebrahimi 2022): 183 people inhaled three drops of 1.5% lavender or chamomile oil or distilled water for 30 nights. Depression scores improved with both oils against water, immediately and one month later (p below 0.01).
• Drug dependence treatment (Korrani 2026): 56 people in residential care, twice-daily inhalation for 3 days or routine care alone. Depression subscale scores afterward were 5.11 and 12.29 (p below 0.001). The authors warn against reading this as proof of a lasting or specific effect, given the short period, no placebo and no follow-up.
• Around childbirth (Kianpour 2018): 105 high-risk women inhaled lavender oil with rose water from week 38 until 6 weeks after delivery. Postpartum depression scores were lower than in the placebo and routine care groups. The treatment combined two scents.
• Short exposures: ten minutes of lavender scent lowered a depression-dejection mood subscale in 17 young women before their periods (p = 0.045; Matsumoto 2013), and 20 minutes lowered a depression self-rating in 7 healthy men (Ogata 2020). In 42 female college students with insomnia, depression improved only in the week with the stronger fragrance (Lee 2006).
• Null results: in 49 women having breast reconstruction, lavender oil made no measurable difference to depression (p = 0.21; Shammas 2021). In 313 people having radiotherapy, a blend of lavender, bergamot and cedarwood oils made no significant difference to depression scores, and anxiety scores were lower in the group given carrier oil alone (p = 0.04; Graham 2003).

A 2023 meta-analysis of aromatherapy in general (32 trials, Cho 2023) found a moderate reduction in depressive symptoms (standardized difference 0.56, 0.43 to 0.69). Inhalation did best, and blended oils did better than lavender or other single oils, so the result is not specific to lavender. It found no effect in pregnant or postpartum women. Reviews in people with cancer disagree: one found no effect on depression (Li 2022), and a later and larger one found improvement (Liu 2026, 26 studies, 2,912 people).

Massage With Lavender Oil

Massage brings touch, attention and time with another person, so it is hard to tell what the lavender adds. One trial tested this directly. In 42 people with advanced cancer, weekly massage with lavender oil and carrier oil was compared with carrier oil alone and no treatment (Soden 2004). Depression scores fell significantly in the group massaged with carrier oil, and the authors report that adding lavender did not appear to increase the benefit.

• Null for depression (Zhang 2025): breast cancer patients on chemotherapy had massage with lavender oil (47 people) or sweet almond oil (51 people). Sleep, anxiety and pain improved more with lavender, but depression scores did not differ at week 4 (29.43 and 30.88, p = 0.286).
• Older women with heart disease (Bahrami 2017): 90 women with acute coronary syndrome had reflexology with lavender oil or routine care. Depression differed significantly between the groups.
• Nursing homes (Mehrabian 2022): 38 older adults had massage with lavender, chamomile and rosemary oils or routine care. Depression scores in the massage group fell from 9.94 to 4.15.
• Older adults in China (Xiong 2018): 60 people with depressive symptoms had massage, inhalation or no treatment for 8 weeks. The oil was a blend of lavender, sweet orange and bergamot. Depression scores were lower with both active treatments, and stayed below their starting level at follow-up.
• Hospice (Chang 2008): 58 people with terminal cancer had hand massage with a blend of bergamot, lavender and frankincense or plain almond oil for 7 days. Depression improved more with the blend. The groups were not randomized.

The Proposed Mechanism Remains Unsettled

No one has shown how lavender oil would relieve depression. A 2025 review by trial authors says more research is needed to clarify the mechanism, including its effects on serotonin signalling, receptor pathways and calcium channels. The proposals come mainly from laboratory and animal work, listed here with the kind of evidence behind each.

• Calcium channels: in cell and nerve-tissue experiments, the oil reduced calcium entry through several voltage-dependent calcium channels, with some similarity to pregabalin but without binding the same site (Schuwald 2013). This work was aimed at anxiety.
• Serotonin-1A receptors: in a brain-scan study of 17 healthy men taking 160 mg a day for at least 8 weeks, binding at this receptor was lower than on placebo in two large brain regions, and gray matter volume did not change (Baldinger 2014). These were healthy men, not people with depression, and the study's authors link the finding to anxiety.
• Serotonin transporter: in laboratory binding tests, lavender oil and linalool bound the serotonin transporter, the target of drugs such as sertraline, and an NMDA glutamate receptor (López 2017). Whether this happens at the levels reached by an 80 mg capsule in a human brain is not established.
• Nerve growth: in rats, the capsule oil at 30 mg per kg performed like imipramine in a forced swim test after 9 days, and in cultured nerve cells it increased nerve-fibre growth and new connections through a signalling pathway involving CREB, a protein that switches genes on (Friedland 2021). A review from the same group argues that calcium channel and nerve-growth effects may share a common pathway (Müller 2021).
• Inhaled oil in rodents: in rats given high-dose stress hormone, inhaled lavender oil eased depression-like behavior and restored new nerve-cell growth (Sánchez-Vidaña 2019). In rats withdrawn from alcohol it lowered inflammatory signals in the hippocampus (Li 2024). In isolated mouse nerve cells it raised calcium in oxytocin neurons (Ogata 2020).
• Plant extract in rats: a water extract of stem and leaf reduced immobility in stressed rats (Okurut 2024). This is not the essential oil.

Rat swim tests and cell cultures are screening tools. They do not show that the same process is happening in a person with depression, and no study on this page has measured a mechanism in people with major depression taking the capsule.

Side Effects, Including Burping

Burping, the medical term for which is eructation, is the side effect that stands out. In the 2025 trial, 16.5% of people on the capsule (28 of 170) reported burping that investigators judged potentially related to treatment. That is higher than the 1 to 3% quoted for older anxiety trials on the anxiety page. The trial authors describe it as mild, transient and annoying but not harmful, and write that it might be lessened by a glass of water or by taking the capsule just before a meal, a suggestion the trial did not test.

Other figures from the same trial:

• Any potentially related event: 32.9% on the capsule, 28.7% on sertraline, 27.4% on placebo.
• Most frequent on sertraline: headache (6.4%), nausea (4.7%) and diarrhea (4.1%).
• Serious events, any cause: 2.9% on the capsule, 3.5% on sertraline, 2.6% on placebo.
• Suicidal ideation: reported as a serious event by two people in each of the three groups. Suicidal thoughts are a sign hospitals treat as urgent.
• Stopped early because of lack of effect or poor tolerance: 8.2% on the capsule, 8.2% on sertraline, 4.5% on placebo.

A review by trial authors estimates the extra risk of stomach and gut complaints at about 3% above placebo across trials, and reports no sign of sexual problems, weight gain, sedation or sleep disturbance in clinical trials. It also says people with severe kidney impairment tolerated the capsule. In a separate network meta-analysis of anxiety drugs (100 trials, 28,637 people), it was as acceptable as placebo and one of four treatments with fewer adverse events than placebo. Most of these sources have authors with ties to the maker, as set out under who funded the trials. The trials ran for 8 to 10 weeks, so they do not describe side effects of long-term use.

Withdrawal and Abuse Data

The main formal measurement of withdrawal comes from one trial. After a 10-week trial in generalized anxiety disorder, people stopped the capsule abruptly while paroxetine was tapered, and all were followed for 1 week with a 20-item physician withdrawal checklist (Gastpar 2017). Average scores fell slightly in every group: 0.19 on placebo, 0.23 on 80 mg, 0.65 on 160 mg and 0.51 on paroxetine, with a median change of 0.00. The authors report no withdrawal effects in any group.

Those people had anxiety, were followed for only a week and had taken the capsule for 10 weeks. In the 2025 depression trial, everyone had a 7-day follow-up in which sertraline was tapered and the capsule was replaced by placebo, and the paper reports safety monitoring without a separate withdrawal scale. No study was found of stopping after long-term use.

For abuse potential, 34 recreational drug users rated single doses of 80 mg and 640 mg of the capsule, 2 mg and 4 mg of lorazepam, and placebo (Seifritz 2021). Both capsule doses were rated like placebo for drug liking, unlike lorazepam (p below 0.001), and showed no sedative effect.

Drug Interaction Data

• Liver enzymes: 16 healthy volunteers took 160 mg a day for 11 days, then a cocktail of test drugs that track five cytochrome P450 enzymes (Doroshyenko 2013). There was no relevant effect on CYP1A2, CYP2C9, CYP2D6 or CYP3A4. The main measure for CYP2C19, using omeprazole, went above the preset upper limit of 1.43. The authors attribute this to omeprazole's high variability, note that the other CYP2C19 measures were within limits, and conclude there was no clinically relevant effect.
• Birth control pill: in 24 healthy women, 160 mg a day did not change blood levels of ethinyl estradiol or levonorgestrel beyond preset limits (ratios of 0.97 and 0.94), and no measure suggested reduced contraceptive effect (Heger-Mahn 2014).
• Laboratory data: in human liver preparations, lavender oil weakly inhibited CYP3A4 and CYP1A2 (Mondal 2023). The authors conclude that interaction potential is low. The record of this study lists an essential oil company among its funders.
• Case report with sertraline: a 2021 letter in an emergency medicine journal is titled as a case of moderate serotonin toxicity precipitated by a possible interaction between lavender tea and sertraline (Seet 2021). This is a single case with a possible link, and it involves tea, not the capsule. Serotonin toxicity can be dangerous, and hospitals treat its signs as urgent.

The 2025 review by trial authors states that clinical studies and post-marketing experience have shown no drug interactions. Both of its authors have ties to the maker. None of the test drugs in the enzyme study was an antidepressant, no dedicated interaction study of the capsule with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor was found, and the 2025 trial did not allow other psychiatric drugs. Trials that combined lavender tincture or tea with imipramine or citalopram were small and were not designed as safety studies.

Who Funded and Wrote the Trials

Nearly all the human evidence on this capsule in depression comes from one sponsor and a linked group of researchers.

• The 2025 trial: the capsule's manufacturer, a German herbal medicine company, sponsored the research and, the paper says, funded its publication. Two of the seven authors are its employees, and one of those two performed the analyses. The other five declare consulting, advisory, speaking or research payments that include this company, along with other firms. Medical writing was done by an outside professional. The paper says raw data cannot be shared.
• The 2026 symptom analysis: the same manufacturer is listed as funder, and one author is a salaried employee.
• The 2016 mixed anxiety and depression trial: two of the four authors list the manufacturer as their affiliation.
• The 2023 pooled analysis and the 2025 review: written by researchers who also ran the trials. Both authors of the review declare ties to the manufacturer.
• Laboratory and animal work: the authors of the 2021 rat and cell study report research grants from the manufacturer.

Industry sponsorship does not make a result false. It does mean the main finding awaits independent replication. The studies whose authors declare no conflict of interest are mostly small and test other products, inhalation or massage. An oral capsule trial in diagnosed major depression run independently of the maker was not found.

The 2025 trial also has a feature bearing on blinding. The placebo capsules were flavored with a tiny amount of lavender oil so that they would smell alike, and the paper reports no check on whether participants could tell which capsule they had. A burp that tastes of lavender could in principle reveal the treatment, which is a general concern in such trials and has not been measured here.

Lavender and Low Mood in Traditional Use

The following is what tradition reports, not what trials have shown. Trial reports describe lavender as being used for low mood in traditional Persian medicine, with many of its textbooks naming it for this purpose, and more widely in Asia. A two-herb syrup of lavender and dodder is one such Persian formula for depression with anxiety. Authors of a 2024 rat study write that communities in Uganda use the plant to manage depressive disorders. The wider story of the plant is on Lavender: History and Traditional Use.

A 2003 trial paper noted the gap at the time: many medicinal plant textbooks referred to this use, yet there was no evidence-based document behind it.

What Is Not Known

• Severe depression: people with severe depression were excluded from the 2025 trial, so there are no capsule data for them.
• Suicidal thoughts: anyone with any suicidal thoughts was excluded or withdrawn, so the capsule's effect on them is unmeasured.
• Treatment-resistant depression: people who had not responded to an adequate antidepressant in the current episode were excluded, as were those who had failed on sertraline in an earlier one.
• Longer use and relapse: the depression trials ran 8 and 10 weeks, and no capsule trial of relapse prevention was found.
• Adding the capsule to an antidepressant: no large randomized test was found. The 2025 trial banned other psychiatric drugs, and the combination evidence comes from a tincture trial, a tea trial and an 8-person case series.
• Replication: only one randomized trial has tested the capsule in major depression as the main diagnosis.
• Who took part: all but five participants in the 2025 trial were described as Caucasian, about two thirds were women, and all were treated in Germany or Poland.
• Pregnancy and breastfeeding: neither the 2025 trial report nor the 2025 review reports any data.
• Dose: the depression trials gave only 80 mg a day. A higher dose such as 160 mg has not been tested in a depression trial.
• Mechanism: as above, no mechanism has been measured in people with depression taking the capsule.

Key Research Papers

1. Kasper S, Volz HP, Möller HJ, Schläfke S, Klement S, Anghelescu IG, Seifritz E. Lavender oil preparation Silexan is effective in mild-to-moderate major depression: a randomized, placebo- and reference-controlled trial. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2025;275(6):1693-1703. PubMed PMID: 38558147
2. Möller HJ, Anghelescu IG, Volz HP, Seifritz E, Schläfke S, Kasper S. Effects of lavender oil preparation silexan on different symptoms of major depression - results from a randomized, controlled trial. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. 2026;29(9). PubMed PMID: 42550483
3. Kasper S, Volz HP, Dienel A, Schläfke S. Efficacy of Silexan in mixed anxiety-depression--A randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2016;26(2):331-340. PubMed PMID: 26718792
4. Bartova L, Dold M, Volz HP, Seifritz E, Möller HJ, Kasper S. Beneficial effects of Silexan on co-occurring depressive symptoms in patients with subthreshold anxiety and anxiety disorders: randomized, placebo-controlled trials revisited. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2023;273(1):51-63. PubMed PMID: 35262795
5. Kasper S, Eckert A. Silexan in anxiety, depression, and related disorders: pharmacological background and clinical data. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2025;275(6):1621-1635. PubMed PMID: 39453446
6. Firoozeei TS, Feizi A, Rezaeizadeh H, Zargaran A, Roohafza HR, Karimi M. The antidepressant effects of lavender (Lavandula angustifolia Mill.): A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials. Complement Ther Med. 2021;59:102679. PubMed PMID: 33549687
7. Shamabadi A, Akhondzadeh S. Efficacy and tolerability of Lavandula angustifolia in treating patients with the diagnosis of depression: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. J Complement Integr Med. 2023;20(1):81-91. PubMed PMID: 34420270
8. Kim M, Nam ES, Lee Y, Kang HJ. Effects of Lavender on Anxiety, Depression, and Physiological Parameters: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Asian Nurs Res (Korean Soc Nurs Sci). 2021;15(5):279-290. PubMed PMID: 34775136
9. Sarris J, Ravindran A, Yatham LN, Marx W, Rucklidge JJ, McIntyre RS, Akhondzadeh S, Benedetti F, Caneo C, Cramer H, Cribb L, de Manincor M, Dean O, Deslandes AC, Freeman MP, Gangadhar B, Harvey BH, Kasper S, Lake J, Lopresti A, Lu L, Metri NJ, Mischoulon D, Ng CH, Nishi D, Rahimi R, Seedat S, Sinclair J, Su KP, Zhang ZJ, Berk M. Clinician guidelines for the treatment of psychiatric disorders with nutraceuticals and phytoceuticals: The World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) and Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) Taskforce. World J Biol Psychiatry. 2022;23(6):424-455. PubMed PMID: 35311615
10. Frost R, Zamri A, Mathew S, Salame A, Bhanu C, Bhamra SK, Bazo-Alvarez JC, Heinrich M, Walters K. Understanding the research landscape of over-the-counter herbal products, dietary supplements, and medications evaluated for depressive symptoms in adults: a scoping review. Front Pharmacol. 2025;16:1609605. PubMed PMID: 40735481
11. Urata M, Sakurai H, Ueno F, Maruki T, Tada T, Uchida T, Matsumoto Y, Murao M, Tomita M, Baba H, Kato M, Tsuboi T, Watanabe K. Efficacy of Pharmacological Interventions in Milder Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Neuropsychopharmacol Rep. 2025;45(1):e70008. PubMed PMID: 40014460
12. Yeung KS, Hernandez M, Mao JJ, Haviland I, Gubili J. Herbal medicine for depression and anxiety: A systematic review with assessment of potential psycho-oncologic relevance. Phytother Res. 2018;32(5):865-891. PubMed PMID: 29464801
13. Akhondzadeh S, Kashani L, Fotouhi A, Jarvandi S, Mobaseri M, Moin M, Khani M, Jamshidi AH, Baghalian K, Taghizadeh M. Comparison of Lavandula angustifolia Mill. tincture and imipramine in the treatment of mild to moderate depression: a double-blind, randomized trial. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2003;27(1):123-7. PubMed PMID: 12551734
14. Nikfarjam M, Parvin N, Assarzadegan N, Asghari S. The Effects of Lavandula Angustifolia Mill Infusion on Depression in Patients Using Citalopram: A comparison Study. Iran Red Crescent Med J. 2013;15(8):734-9. PubMed PMID: 24578844
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PubMed Topic Searches

1. PubMed: lavender oil capsules and major depression
2. PubMed: lavender aromatherapy and depression, randomized trials
3. PubMed: lavender oil and drug interactions
4. PubMed: lavender essential oil and antidepressant mechanisms

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Connections

• Lavender: Benefits — the hub for the lavender articles
• Lavender — the main topic page
• Lavender for Anxiety and Stress — the anxiety trials of the same capsule
• Lavender for Sleep Quality — the inhaled sleep research
• Lavender: History and Traditional Use — the plant's past
• Depression — the condition itself
• Postpartum Depression — the setting of several aromatherapy studies
• St. John's Wort for Depression — the most studied herbal comparison
• Saffron for Mood and Depression — another herb tested against antidepressants
• Aromatherapy — the wider practice behind the inhaled studies
• Serotonin, Mood and Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors — an animation of how sertraline's drug class works

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