BENGALURU: Abhishek Mohan (37) suffers from schizophrenia and has been treated by some of the best psychiatrists and mental health hospitals in India. His treatment, which started with mildest anti-psychotic drugs, went up to the highest anti-psychotic drugs, but there was no improvement. His family was advised to take him to the National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), where they were told to consult the Integrated Medicine Department (IMD).
Mohan has been under treatment of IMD, which comprises the three streams of medicine and therapy -- allopathy, ayurveda and yoga along with the antipsychotic drugs that have been prescribed to him since May and there is a “20 per cent improvement in him,” said his father. “Before this treatment, Abhishek used to drool uncontrollably, stammer and had an unstable gait. There is a marked improvement now,” he added. In March, IMD won the ‘Centre of Excellence’ grant from the Ministry of Ayush to undertake the project ‘Yantra’.
The centre has secured 11 research projects worth Rs 14 crore to evaluate the effect of integrative approaches consisting of ayurveda and yoga with modern scientific parameters on opioid dependence, psychosis, migraine, paediatric, ADHD, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, multiple sclerosis, as well as some related to Covid.
Director, Nimhans, Pratima Murthy said, “Every system of medicine has its own advantages and disadvantages. This integration helps gain the benefit of all the systems. We need to bring clinicians from different fields together to form this centre with the focus on patient care at the core.”
Initial randomised controlled clinical trials led by former director, Prof Emeritus, IMD, Nimhans and President of Medical Assessment and Rating Board, National Medical Commission (NMC), BN Gangadhar, demonstrated that practising yoga five days per week for 12 weeks could be as useful as taking antidepressants in patients with mild to moderate depression. “Earlier we used to get one or two patients a week. Now we get 50 to 60 patients every day. The fact that doctors are referring their patients to the centre based on their feedback is significant. Initially, all the referrals were from psychiatrists. Now we get referrals from neurology and neurosurgery,” he said.