BENGALURU: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has started the ‘IMA Initiative for Emotional Health and Emotional Well-Being of Medical Students and Doctors in India’, supposedly considering the increased rate of mental illness and even suicides among young medicos. They are organising a workshop at IMA House in the city on Sunday.
However, the IMA’s move to invite Yoga practitioners to address the workshop has led to several practitioners and consultants of modern scientific medicine, and members of the IMA, to oppose and dissociate themselves from these programmes.
In a letter to IMA, several neuropsychiatrists, paediatricians and physicians said, “We urge the Indian Medical Association to stop the promotion of yoga and meditation for prevention and management of mental disorders, and instead strengthen evidence-based, modern scientific initiatives of the World Health Organisation and the National Mental Health Programme.”It is appalling that the IMA is promoting unproven and unrelated methods such as yoga, meditation, laughter and yoga for management of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts, and is denying well-proven methods in modern scientific medicine to treat and prevent stress, depression, and anxiety,” the letter said.
“So far there is no conclusive evidence to support the use of yoga or meditation in the prevention or treatment of mental disorders, and these methods do not even find a mention in any of the evidence-based protocols for prevention or treatment of mental disorders or for the promotion of mental health. The National Mental Health Programme and the National Mental Health Policy 2014 also do not mention yoga or meditation,” the protesting doctors reasoned in the letter.
The uproar comes days after Dr Ajit Bhide, President, and Dr Vinay Kumar, Secretary of the Indian Psychiatric Society had questioned the action of the union health ministry that released a poster on mental health on June 25, advising people to go for walks, follow a routine, do yoga, and eat fruits. The advisory had caused outrage and psychiatrists all over the country had protested stating that depression is a serious matter that can have devastating effects and can even lead to suicide. Patients need medical attention and psychiatric help to tackle the illness, they had argued.