Historical perspective of parkinsonism and ra'asha

ABSTRACT

Unani classical literature is a rich source of information for various clinical disorders but there is a wide gap between ancient and modern views of elaborating the pathophysiology. As far as Parkinsonism is concerned, it is a syndrome characterized by tremors, muscular rigidity, Bradykinesia and postural instability. After going through literature and historical review it is very much obvious that the description about the Ra'asha and its associated symptoms arise due to CNS disorder that is vividly described by ancient Unani scholars but due to wide gap in ancient and modern knowledge and way of describing pathogenesis of the Parkinsonism and Ra'asha could not be correlated. With the help of this study a thorough review of classical literature along with model concept of extra pyramidal disorders is being incorporated