Clary Sage Oil for Anxiety: Nerves vs a Disorder

Two different things get called anxiety, and clary sage oil is only ever discussed for one of them. The first is the nerves before a medical test or an exam. The second is an anxiety disorder, which the National Institute of Mental Health separates from ordinary worry by how long it lasts and how much it interferes with life. A bottle of essential oil is a fragrance purchase, not a plan for the second kind.

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Step one: which kind is it?

The NIMH anxiety disorders page says feeling anxious is a normal part of life, and that anxiety disorders involve more than occasional worry or fear: the anxiety does not go away, can get worse over time, shows up across many situations, and can interfere with job performance, schoolwork and relationships. Use that as a rough sorting rule.

What the clary sage trials actually measured

Only a few human studies involve clary sage, and the anxiety readouts in them are thin.

A urodynamic-testing trial. Seol et al., J Altern Complement Med, 2013 was a double-blind randomized trial in 34 women with urinary incontinence undergoing urodynamic assessment, a stressful, intrusive test. Participants inhaled 5% clary sage, 5% lavender, or almond oil as the control. Clary sage was reported to lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure and respiratory rate relative to the comparison groups, and lavender tended to raise blood pressure. Notice what was measured: vital signs and a salivary stress hormone, not a questionnaire score for anxiety. The authors' own conclusion was that clary oil inhalation may be useful for inducing relaxation.

A diabetic foot ulcer trial. Son et al., Front Med, 2025 randomized 72 patients to 5% clary sage, 5% linalyl acetate or almond oil and measured visual analog scales for depression, anxiety and stress. In the group with mild depression scores, clary sage was reported to lower stress against almond oil. In the group with moderate-to-severe scores (9 to 11 people per arm), the reported anxiety and depression drops belonged to linalyl acetate, not to clary sage oil. The abstract does not give session length. With subgroups that small, one or two people can swing a result.

A brain-wave and blood pressure study. Choi et al., 2022 exposed 23 women to ten oils for 90 seconds each. Clary sage raised relative alpha power and the alpha-to-high-beta ratio on EEG, and systolic pressure fell with all ten oils. Reasoning from that, a brief physiological shift on EEG is something many pleasant scents produce, and it is not an anxiety score.

A hormone study. Lee et al., Phytother Res, 2014 had 22 menopausal women in their 50s inhale clary sage oil and measured blood levels. Cortisol fell significantly and serotonin rose significantly, with larger cortisol changes in women who scored higher on depression-tendency scales, but only on some of the scales. The abstract describes no comparison group, so the shifts cannot be separated from sitting quietly for a while, and cortisol is a stress marker, not a measure of an anxiety disorder. We cover it further in our post on the clary sage cortisol study.

No trial we found tested clary sage oil on people with a diagnosed anxiety disorder.

What the pooled reviews say, and why they do not settle it

Gong et al., J Affect Disord, 2020 meta-analyzed 25 articles (32 trials) of aromatherapy of every kind and reported a weighted mean difference of -5.16 points on state anxiety (95% CI -5.78 to -4.55). The authors themselves noted that the proper dosage of essential oils needs further research. An earlier review, Lee et al., J Altern Complement Med, 2011, covered 16 randomized trials, found that most reported positive effects, and said methodological quality needed to improve.

Two cautions follow. First, these pool many oils, delivery methods and settings, so they say "aromatherapy" and not "clary sage". Second, a scented intervention against an unscented control is hard to blind; participants know when a room smells like something. Reviews of odor research, such as Herz, 2009, concluded that psychological explanations covered the data more completely than pharmacological ones. That does not make a good-smelling room worthless before a stressful appointment. It means expectation may be doing much of the work, and you would not need clary sage for that.

In animals, a systematic review of 14 rodent studies (Tsang and Ho, 2010) found lavender the most-studied oil; it does not support a clary sage claim either.

If you still want to try the scent before a stressful event

Our position: a fragrance you already like, used before the event rather than as an emergency fix, is a fair experiment. That is reasoning from the trials above, not something we have tried. A few practical points:

Who should skip this

Our page says to avoid clary sage oil during pregnancy; ask an OB-GYN or midwife about any aroma. Keep it away from children and pets, and do not take it by mouth. If a scent makes you anxious, headachy or lightheaded, stop. If your worry is constant, ask a doctor. The better-established route is the professional help NIMH describes; no oil trial we found compares an oil against it.

For the wider evidence map see clary sage oil for stress, mood and sleep, and for the lavender comparison, clary sage versus lavender.

Clary Sage Essential Oil bottle

Clary Sage Essential Oil

Clary Sage Essential Oil from our own shop, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.

From $19.99

Shop Now →

Sources & Further Reading