Purpose: Mood changes in nurses, working in a disaster-striken area after The Great East Japan Earthquake, were assessed using the Japanese Version of the Profile of Mood States–Brief Form (POMS–BF). Two groups of nurses working at a psychiatric hospital in a disaster-stricken area were targeted: aromatherapy group (intervention group) and carrier oil group (control group).

Approach: Four POMS-BF-based assessments were conducted: 1) immediately prior to treatment, 2) immediately after treatment, 3) one day after treatment, and 4) two days after treatment. Points were standardized for each of the six subscales to obtain T-scores, which were then interpreted as rough indices of mood disturbance using Total Mood Disturbance (TMD) to obtain TMD scores based on single factor analysis of variance.

Results: TMD scores in the two groups of nurses showed a valley profile, which is normally seen in depressed patients before treatment, but they showed higher vigor values in the second assessment. T-scores such as those for fatigue fell. While TMD score were significantly different in the control group between the first and second assessments (p<0.001), those scores in the intervention group were significantly different between the first and second assessments (p=0.029), and between the first and third assessments (p=0.047), indicating that the effects of aromatherapy continued longer than those of carrier oil treatment.