Randomized controlled trial on the efficacy of panchagavya ghrita in the management of obsessive compulsive disorder

Abstract

Ayurveda has described many a psychiatric disorders in different contexts. Unmada is an entity where there is derangement of mind, cognition, orientation, memory, desire, habits, actions and rituals, either individually or as a whole. All of the above faculties are not impaired in a single clinical entity. Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) can be considered due to deviation of the mental attributes like cognition, will power, memory etc. which affects the day to day life of an individual. Management of psychiatric disorders in Ayurveda includes spiritual therapy, psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy focusing on the balancing of bodily and mental humors. Here in the case of OCD, vaata is the main humor vitiated among the three basic humors and the management should be directed to pacify all the three humors, with special consideration to vaata. Snehapaana is the important one among them. In the case of thought abnormalities, mental functions will be fogged up. To cleanse the channels, the drug of choice should be pungent and having the property of srotosodhana i.e. clearing the channels. The selected drug in this study, Pancagavya ghrita is an ideal drug in that sense. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of Pancagavya ghrita in OCD when compared with the supportive psychotherapy. The method of this study is randomized controlled trial with sample size 20; assessments were done according to Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale. There were significant changes in the trial group and the control group. But there was no statistical significance on comparison between the two groups.