Overview

The Department of Integrative Medicine, National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru aims to maintain the tradition of active contribution in service, training and research activities of the Institute. It aims to play an active role in policy, planning and implementation of programmes in the field of yoga and Ayurveda-based integrative therapy for neuropsychiatric disorders. Clinical services are catering to the needs of patients across the country as well as other countries. Outpatient clinical services have already started from October 2019 and the department further aims to start inpatient services by the end of year 2020.

Currently the department offers yoga and Ayurveda-based integrative treatment for various neuropsychiatric disorders. These include schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders, Parkinson’s disease, substance use, somatoform pain disorder, epilepsy, back pain, childhood psychiatric disorders, postpartum psychiatric disorders (mother baby yoga), and geriatric neuropsychiatric disorders. The team from the department has been successful in developing various scientifically informed generic yoga programs for patients with schizophrenia, depression, mild cognitive impairment, obsessive compulsive disorder and is working on similar programs for other disorders. 

The department faculty is involved in doing high quality research in the field of integrating yoga and Ayurveda for neuropsychiatric health disorders. The faculty and students have published several research papers in peer reviewed journals, and are actively collaborating with other disciplines of mental health and neurosciences within and outside the institute. The department is also networked with several leading universities and research institutions locally as well as globally.