dasa Posted August 12, 2002 Report Share Posted August 12, 2002 Temple treatment shows mental health benefits Indian scientists claim people with psychiatric problems can get the same results from a six week stay at a Hindu temple as they can from a month-long course of drugs. Researchers tested patients before and after their stay there and found they had improved by around 20%. The improvement was similar to that of a person on a four-week course of chlorpromazine and risperidone. The temple patients attended simple morning prayer for 15 minutes and then spent the rest of the day helping out with chores. There were no rituals or ceremonies meant to improve mental health, according to New Scientist. More than 30 patients with delusional disorders, paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorders took part in the study. Ramanathan Raguram, of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bangalore, carried out the study at the Muthuswamy temple in Tamil Nadu. He said: "What they were given is tender loving care, in a non-threatening environment, in tune with their own cultural beliefs, with the hope of recovery. "And in the history of psychiatry, these were the principles on which asylums were originally built." Raguram says there were no controls with the study and so it was not entirely scientific. The full study is published in the British Medical Journal. Story filed: 10:44 Friday 5th July 2002 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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