Epilepsy in Pregnancy and Role of Unani Medicine: A Review
Abstract
Epilepsy in classical literature is termed as Saraa’ or Mirgi. It is a group of disorders characterized by unpredictable seizures. Other symptoms are loss of awareness, disturbance of movement, sensation, mood, or other cognitive functions. Individuals with few medical or physiological conditions are more susceptible to it; pregnancy is one of them with a prevalence of 0.5% to 1%. Although pregnancy is not among the causes of epilepsy, but a pregnant woman who has epilepsy is more prone to seizures. Also, serum level of antiepileptic drugs falls in pregnancy due to various reasons like altered physiology and pharmacokinetics etc. Hence, high doses of AEDs are required. Studies show that none of the anticonvulsants are absolutely safe in pregnancy. Therefore, there is a need to search for the availability of safer alternatives.
According to Unani scholars, the basic pathology behind it is the obstruction in any region of the brain or nervous tissue that helps in the motor and sensory function of various organs. Some of the factors causing obstruction are kasrat e sauda, kasrat e balgham, ghilzat e dam, etc.
Medicines have been mentioned in Unani literature that have potential to serve for seizure control, reducing complications caused by AEDs and for treating epilepsy during the episode and seizures free period. Local and oral use of Musakkin, Dafae tashannuj, mulattif, mushil, muqawwi e dimag, muqawwi e aasab, muhallilat etc has been described to be used in epilepsy.
In this paper, an attempt has been made to review the literature including pathology, etiology and availability of drugs to be used in epilepsy during pregnancy in Unani system of medicine.
How to cite this article:
Mustafa S, Arif Y. Epilepsy in Pregnancy and Role of Unani Medicine: A Review. J Integ Comm Health 2020; 9(2): 28-31.
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