A correlational study to evluate the analogousness of post traumatic stress disorders as pre DSM 5 to the symptomatology of indicated medicines from Homoeopathic Materia medica and to affirm the same through retrospective case series

Abstract

Background and Objectives: newlineMental disorders are a major threat to public health posing a challenge to the medical fraternity. newlineThe sweep of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) had a major psychological impact on the newlinecommunity. A survey of the Indian population showed a prevalence of 28.2% suffering from newlinePost-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during the pandemic. The homoeopathic system offers newlinea wide range of medicines for mental illnesses with the uniqueness of its holistic approach and newlinethis study aims to explore the usefulness of homoeopathic medicines in PTSD. newlineMaterials and Methods: newlineThis was descriptive correlational research (DCR) along with the analysis of retrospective newlinecases of PTSD treated with homoeopathy conducted in two stages. In stage I, with pre-defined newlineinclusion criteria, the PTSD cluster from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental newlineDisorders, 5th edition (DSM-5) was vetted into homoeopathic rubrics for repertorization. The newlineremedies shortlisted were verified for analogousness from source books of Materia Medica. newlineThe vetting was done by a clinical psychologist. In stage II, 50 PTSD cases identified from the newlineOPD case records (2020-2022) treated with homoeopathic medicines were screened. 30 cases newlinewere taken for analysis of those who were assessed by the Clinician-administered PTSD scale- newline5 (CAPS-5) and completed at least six months of follow-up. Trial registered at CTRI: newlineCTRI/2022/08/044948 before initiating the retrospective data collection. newlinePhD (Homoeopathy), Materia Medica, Homoeopathy University, 2023 newlineiii newlineResults: newlineThirty homoeopathic remedies arrived from the DCR analysis and the retrospectively collected newlinedata from 30 PTSD cases was statistically analyzed. CAPS-5 score showed statistical newlinesignificance with homoeopathic medicines (p lt .0001). The causality of the outcome was newlineaffirmed by the post-treatment application of the Modified Naranjo Criteria. newlineConclusion: newlineThe DCR showed the relevance of homoeopathic remedies in the treatment of PTSD by their newlineanalogousness to DSM-5 cluster symptomatology. The Retrospective case series (RCS) of newlinePTSD treated with homoeopathy showed a beneficial effect affirming the same. Further newlinevalidation through well-designed comparative clinical trials is warranted. newline