To Study The Relationship Of Classification Of Depressive Disorders With The Hahnemannian Concept Of Mental Illness

ABSTRACT

Background: Hahnemann (1996) has classified mental illnesses in a rather different way. Heunderstood the mental illness not very different in kind from the physical illness. He classified theillnesses on the principles of cause and effect and the dynamic shift of the illness from the body tomind or vice versa. Aim & Object To classify patients suffering form Depressive Disorder as per DSM IVcriteria. To determine the relationship of this classification with that enunciated in the 215,216, 221 and225 aphorisms of Organon of Medicine. To evolve the totality of patients on the basis of the aboveevolved Hahnemannian classification of Depressive Disorders. To project a therapeutic plan based onthe finding in 1, 2 and 3 above. Material And Methods: Detailed interview focusing mainly uponsymptomatology for arriving at acomprehensive clinical diagnosis according to DSM IV. Studying theevolutionary pattern of the selected cases to understand them according to the Hahnemannianclassification. Correlating the therapeutic outcome with the principles used and thus discovering anycorrelation between the two approaches. Result and Conclusion: The conclusions range from theconceptual clarity of the applicability of the two systems of classification together to the specificunderstanding of the requirement of appropriate remedy in the appropriate potency and repetitionbased upon a collective understanding of the predisposing and maintaining causes and thesusceptibility. The importance of understanding of the susceptibility came out as the most importantaspect in the combination of the two systems of classification.