A case study on the Ayurvedic management of cerebral palsy

Cerebral palsy (CP) is the leading cause of childhood disability affecting function and development. CP is defined as a nonprogressive neuromotor disorder of cerebral origin. It cannot be correlated with any single disease or condition in Ayurveda, as it is a multi-factorial disease with clinical features of a wide variation. According to Vāgbhaṭa, it is classified in the disease categories of sahaja (hereditary) and garbhaja (congenital) and jātaja (psychosomatic) type of diseases. Of the many types and subtypes of CP, none has any known “cure.” Here, an effort was made to treat a 3-year-old male child with spastic type of CP using multiple Ayurveda treatment modalities. At the end of 94 days of treatment, Pañcakarma procedures along with internal medication resulted in 10–15% improvement in the overall effect of therapy.