Bengaluru's Nimhans launches Ayush Maan integrative medicine programme

Bengaluru: The National Institute for Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (Nimhans) on Tuesday launched a month-long campaign — Ayush Mann — to raise awareness about Integrative Medicine for Mental Well-being.

Integrative Medicine is a combination of allopathy medicines, yoga and ayurvedic treatments like panchakarma for the mental well-being of the patients. The Integrative Medicine Department has treated over 10,000 patients so far.

Patients with anxiety disorders, depression, Parkinson’s, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, and other mental health disorders are treated successfully in integrative medicine, said Dr Avinash, senior resident at Nimhans’ Integrative Medicine Department.

Yoga therapy 

A six-month randomised controlled trial evaluated the effectiveness of a yoga-based intervention as an add-on therapy for 55 patients with schizophrenia. The results showed that the yoga add-on therapy (YT) group had significantly greater improvements in negative symptoms compared to the treatment-as-usual over the six-month study period.

Dr BN Gangadhar, former director of Nimhans, said, “When a schizophrenia patient performs yoga, oxytocin — a do-good hormone — gets released, which contributes to their recovery.” 

In another experiment, yoga was mooted as a single mode of treatment for depression. About 13 patients with depression were taught a structured yoga programme with 10 supervised sessions over two weeks and encouraged to continue daily practice at home.

The progress of the patients was tracked over 12 weeks using standard clinical scales and blood tests. By the end of the study, patients reported clear improvements in their mood and overall well-being.

The blood tests revealed an increase in Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), a protein supporting brain growth and repair. Yoga appeared to help the brain produce more of the “healthy” form of BDNF.