Complementary & Alternative Medicine

Correspondence:

Received: January 01, 1970 | Published: ,

Citation: DOI:

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Introduction

In the huff & puff of life, every individual is confronted with mental illness. According to the state of mind, human life can be classified in two different ways. Firstly easy going, expected and favorable things to mind give feeling of satisfaction and happiness. On the other hand, some bad, unexpected and unwanted situations create negative approach of mind. Both these things are called as ‘sukha’ and ‘dukkha’ in Ayurved. To deal with these things, mental health is the need of hour. In day to day routine, stress is unavoidable, unwanted and undesirable factor of our life. Besides running away from the stressful situations, stress management helps us to tackle with stress by easier and friendly ways. This can be achieved by Shirodhara – an ancient Ayurvedic healing practise. Mental illness, stressful situation and equilibrium status of mind can be easily maintained by shirodhara without taking internal medication.

Aims and objectives

To observe the rate of response to Brahmi and Jatamansi siddha taila Shirodhara when used as a treatment of mental illness with the help of clinical parameters.

Review of literature

Mental health

Mental health is a state of psychological and emotional well being of an individual. It can be referred as a capability of a person to function itself well. Mental health refers to feelings, thoughts and action of an individual specifically when a person faces stress and challenges in his life. Emotional and physical problems are due to absence of good mental health.

Mental illness

Mental health is the balance between all aspects of life like social, spiritual and emotional. It depends upon how we manage our surroundings and make choices in our life. If the function of status of equilibrium fails to maintain the balanced condition of mind, then the person is called as mentally ill.

Causes of mental illness

Following could be the causes of mental illness.

Negative approach
Profession: Deadline, answerability, obeying orders of seniors, promotion etc.
Family: Requirement, health hazards and undesirable events etc.
Economic crisis
Accidents, natural unavoidable events, death etc.

Diagnosis of mental illness: Human body is well equipped to deal with stressful situations but only up to certain levels. After that body ceases to function smoothly and starts giving signals. These symptoms are restlessness, increased irritability, feeling of anger, forgotten, indigestion, fatigue, mentally drained up condition, lack of ability to feel pleasure or enjoyment and mainly the impulse to run away and hide from situation and inability to come to decision which indicates that the person is mentally ill.

Also, it is important to recognize whether we are under stressful condition or out of it. Many times even if we are under the influence of mental illness, our body reacts internally as well as externally. We fail to realize that we are reacting under stress. This also happens when cause of stress is long enough for us to get habitual to that.

Pathophysiology of mental illness: It again depends upon the individual’s nature. Like status of emotion and level of things during problem. Mental illness gives force to think about it. Mind deals with it by means of previous experience and intelligence. Then the answer is found for the problem. If the above said process fails to success, the equilibrium state of mind gets disturbed.

Signs and symptoms of mental illness
Following could be the signs and symptoms of mental illness.

Fatigue
Weakness
Nausea
Anorexia
Indigestion
Headache
Restlessness
Lack of memory
Lack of concentration
Insomnia
Hypertension
Depression
Body ache and chain of diseases

Shirodhara

Providing understanding and guidelines for the balance in body, mind and spirit, Ayurveda gives us shirodhara therapy, a part of Panchakarma therapy to maintain good mental health.

Benefits of shirodhara

Ultimate mental and emotional relaxation therapy.
Beneficial for curing insomnia.
Prevents hair loss, premature greying and cracking of hair.
Nourishes and rejuvenates the body.
Gives strength to neck, head and shoulders.
Invigorates the body and mind and stimulate cognitive memory.
Helps to relieve fatigue, tension, anxiety, anger, hypertension and stress.
It improves concentration, intelligence, confidence and self esteem.

Materials and methods

Field of research: Samaayu Ayurvediya Panchakarma Chikitsalaya & Research Center, Jalgaon, Maharashtra.
Type of research: A Clinical Study.
No. of patients: 30
Type of patients: Both male and female.
Age group: 31 to 60years.
Preferred drug: Brahmi-Jatamansi siddha taila.
Preferred karma: Shirodhara.
Purvakarma: Sarvanga snehan, swedan. (by Dhanvantaram taila, dashmool kwath)
Duration: 15days.

Inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria

Following were the criteria’s are taken for the experiments

Inclusion criteria

Patients being diagnosed for Mental Illness
Age group between 31 to 60years
Patients who are working under stressful conditions.

Exclusion criteria

Patients below 31years and above 60years of age
Patients having Neurological problems
Patients taking antipsychotic, anti epileptic and same kind of drugs
Patients having any systemic problems for which any treatment is going on

Discussion

General parameters

The distribution of patients by age reveals the occurrence of the disease can take place at any age.
The sex did not reveal any specific relation with the disease occurrence.
The distribution of the patients by occupation revealed that patients who were in service as a target completion and answerability were likely to be more suffered from mental ilness.
Kroor koshthi people revealed more incidence might be due to tendency of Pratilomit vayu.
Patients having Madhyama and Avar Sattva affected more rather due to Manasabala.
This is again not giving any specific result and relevance of disease in any particular Prakriti though incidence was more in Vatapradhan Prakriti.

Signs and symptoms

Weakness and Fatigue were observed to reduce with markedly significant value after treatment.
Anorexia and Indigestion were again observed to reduce significantly after treatment.
Headache was again reduced with significance. Insomnia is reduced significantly but not relieved completely in both the groups after treatment though patient showed better relief before treatment.
Hypertension is reduced with significance but not relieved completely after treatment.
All parameters were tested by paired t test and showed significant results.

Conclusion

The experiment clearly concludes that Brahmi Jatamansi sidddha tail Shirodhara with Sarvang Snehan and Swedana as a Poorvakarma could be a remedy for Mental Illness without causing any complication and without any Internal Medication and may prove itself as a strong solution for these unanswered entities. Being herbal preparation with taila, this Shirodhara can be used for long duration for the treatment of such type of disease since there was no Toxicity and Adverse Drug Reactions