Article on Mental Disease-By Dr. D. Sharma

What do you mean by mental disease?

Those one-sided diseases which manifest most of their symptoms through mental faculties and function are mental disease.

Mind and body cannot be separated completely. They are under the control of same vital force. So the derangement of vital force which is observed more in the mental plane has been given his term. There are visible alteration in the mind, disposition, temperament intellect etc.

Hahnemann classifies then in the following manner.

1. Those mental diseases which arise due to long continued troubles, some corporeal disease e.g., suppuration of the lungs, fistula etc. They derange the mind and disposition in the long run. The mental symptoms increase while corporeal symptoms decline and at lat it becomes one sided with prominent mental symptoms.-> It should be treated with antipsoric medicines. There should bo be any torture of the patient and he should be behaved with sympathy, mercy and consideration. He should not feel that he is considered and insane.
2. Mental disease due to long continued worries and anxieties or frequent occurrence of fright etc. -> This is to treated with antipsoric remedies The patient should be administered sensible advice, friendly exhortations and if need be disguised deception.
3. Those mental diseases which appear suddenly due to sudden shocks of good or bad news, fright , or the abuse of spirituous liquors, etc. -> These patients should be treated first with some acute medicines such a s Aconite, Belladonna, Stramonium, Hyoscyamus etc. When the acute state of the sickness has subsided they should be treated with antipsoric medicine because these sudden out breaks are only the sudden explosions of psora.
4. Mental diseases due to faulty education, bad practices, corrupt morals, bad society, etc. -> In these case it should be first decided whether the mental disease has developed fully or not, if these patients improved by the sensible advised, friendly exhortations hen the disease has not developed and should be so treated. But if they become worse then is a fully developed mental disease and should be treated with symptomatic remedies.


Dr. Deoshlok Sharma