Effect of ultra-diluted medicines in depression and anxiety: A narrative review

Background: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and depression are the common mental health diseases affecting millions of people globally. The conventional treatment with medications causes a lot of adverse effects leading patients to seek relief from alternative systems of medicine. The alternative mode of treatment, Homeopathy, uses ultra-diluted drugs to treat GAD and Depression. Objective: This review is to narrate and assess the effectiveness of homeopathy in anxiety and depressive disorders. Also, the related animal studies and in-vitro studies have been evaluated. Methods: The search used combinations of Medical Subject Heading terms ultra-diluted, anxiety, and depression. Lists of articles under references were reviewed to identify additional studies. Results: Studies suggest that ultra diluted, dynamised medicines are used by homeopathic practitioners to treat anxiety and depression. Homeopathic physicians prescribe individualized drugs after a detailed case taking. These have a favorable effect on the patients compared to control and also to conventional medicines. In-vivo studies show encouraging results as ultra-diluted drugs act as anxiolytics without altering the motor abilities of the animal models. In-vitro studies are lacking to reach a decisive inference. Conclusion: Although there are enough preliminary studies establishing proof of the effect of homeopathy in mental health ailments, further exploration is essential and ought to embrace well premeditated controlled studies with sufficient sums of participants.