As Easter approaches and exams beckon, Áine Kerr studies one of the many treatments students take to try to calm their nerves
The novenas are over, the Easter revision courses await and the stress levels are escalating, making it time to call in the stress-busters.
Praying to St Jude, the saint for hopeless cases, and intense exercising are common pre-exam practices, however, every year a large cohort of students turn to the Bach Rescue Remedy to reduce their pre-exam anxiety.
Advocates of the Bach Rescue Remedy often candidly refer to it as "yoga in a bottle", explaining that the flower essences in water induce calm and concentration.
Yet, there appears to be no conclusive medical research which proves if the remedy actually works.
Sceptics of the product argue that those squeezing four drops onto their tongues or into a glass of water are simply consuming a small cocktail mix of water and brandy, and that the alcohol inevitably provides a calm feeling.
Practitioners, however, counteract such arguments with the claim that all flowers have special healing energies which, when captured in water, can have a soothing and calm effect on feelings of fear and stress.
A 2004 letter from the Southern Health Board (to each general practitioner and pharmacist) states that concerns have arisen regarding the alcohol of some herbal medicines.
The Bach Remedy Rescue is cited as one of two examples.
The letter states that Rescue Remedy does not label its alcohol content accurately, and is essentially brandy.
"A GP has reported that some patients are using these products as a source of alcohol, despite their expense," the letter states.
"The patients may deny that there is alcohol in these medicines and can show dependency.
"Children are also reported to be using these products widely, often on teachers' recommendations to calm them for varied situations, including exams."
The letter concludes by advising GPs and pharmacists to be aware of the alcohol content of these products and the potential for abuse outside their normal use.
However, Judy Howard, director of the Dr Edward Bach Centre in the UK which is the umbrella body for Irish Bach practitioners, contends that there is nothing in the remedy that is addictive.
She argues that those taking four drops of the remedy in water consume only a fraction of alcohol and would have to be misusing the remedy and consuming several bottles of it for alcohol to have any effect.
She describes criticism of the alcohol content as a red herring when so many medicinal products contain alcohol.
"People of all ages with varying needs use it as an emergency remedy which is very helpful during any traumatic experience. . . it is helpful and calming and a lot of mothers find that their children are comforted by it."
According to Edel Eagle, an Irish Bach flower essence adviser, the remedies are made from British flowers, plants and trees and were created by Dr Edward Bach to help people manage the emotional demands of daily life.
Some 38 remedies were founded by Bach, of which the Five Flower Remedy, commonly referred to as the "Rescue Remedy", contains five of the 38 remedies.
"Essentially what happens is that the energy of the sun transfers the life force of the flower to the water, the water receives the life force of the flower," says Eagle.
"Bach remedies, individually or in combination, act on the emotional levels, which Bach considered to be the place where the problems, either emotional or physical, originate."
She believes that pre-exam nerves can be helped by combining the Five Flower with other remedies such as Larch and Gentian. In particular, White Chestnut is supposed to help switch off constant re-circling thoughts at night when pre-exam jitters are intruding on sleep.
However, following three years of documenting remedy products, Dr Bridget O'Brien, a general practitioner in Tralee, Co Kerry, has a different perception and understanding of the Bach Rescue Remedy.
She has attended to both young and old patients suffering from an apparent addiction to the remedy, or exhibiting a fast heart beat which is often attributable to brandy consumption.
The remedy was originally licensed with the Medicines and Health Care products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in Britain as a homeopathy product which cannot contain active ingredients, according to O'Brien.
The MHRA is the British government agency which is responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work, and are acceptably safe.
Yet, according to her research and analysis, there is a 27 per cent alcohol solution in each Rescue Remedy, making it essentially a "fortified wine" consisting simply of water and brandy.
She believes the product is in breach of the licence obtained from the MHRA.
"If people want to drink brandy, then buy brandy but know what you are buying," advises O'Brien.
"A lot of Leaving Cert students often aren't able to concentrate in their exams after taking it, because high alcohol leads to low blood sugar levels."
Currently, the Bach Rescue Remedy is not classified as a medicinal product and has not been approved by the Irish Medicines Board (IMB).
However, following consultation with the Department of Health and Children on the situation pertaining to certain categories of products that currently fall outside Irish medicinal products legislation, new regulations will be published shortly.
These regulations will facilitate the licensing of products such as Rescue Remedy as medicines where such products contain medicinal substances and/or make medicinal claims.
When asked if they held any concerns regarding the way in which the remedies are marketed and the effects they pertain to have, the IMB said in the case of Bach Rescue Remedy, no problems had arisen.
It added that where there is a safety concern regarding a specific product or group of products that is considered to pose a risk to public health, the IMB would take immediate action.