MENTAL HEALTH CHALLENGES AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ANXIETY

Abstract

Mental disorders are universal and very common. No country can postpone service development until the finalization of national level epidemiological surveys. It should be noted also that such surveys are very costly and the quality of mental health research is low in most developing countries. Anxiety is the result of stressful life, peer pressure, work pressure and family issues. Cognitive, somatic, emotional and behavioural components combine to form a psychological and physiological state that is known as anxiety. The unpleasant feeling is often linked with uneasiness, fear or worry. Due to anxiety, people often experience nervousness, panic, constant sadness and depressed mood. Many anti-stress medicines and therapies have come up to deal with the ill effects of anxiety. However, most of them have certain side effects as well. Although very few drugs are currently approved by regulatory authorities for treating multi-factorial ailments and disorders of brain like anxiety, anxiety was treated with drugs in a class known as benzodiazepines, Neurontin is an anti seizure medication that has been found to be helpful in treating anxiety for some people, but little organized research has indicated whether or not it is effective in addressing anxiety disorders. Certain plant-derived agents, including, for example, Ashwagandha, Borage Juice, Bugleweed, California poppy, Ginkgo Biloba, Ginseng, St. John's Wort. These plants are used both in herbal and conventional medicine and offer benefits that pharmaceutical drugs lack. In the present article, an attempt has been made to review the most important medicinal plants, including the above which are widely used for their reputed effectiveness in CNS disorders. In this review, we present ethnobotanical information on plants with their mechanisms, used by the traditional healers in India to treat mental illnesses, specifically anxiety and debilitative mental disorders.