Clinical study on the efficacy of Rajayapana Basti and Baladi Yoga in motor disabilities of cerebral palsy in children

BACKGROUND: Cerebral palsy is a static encephalopathy that may be defined as a non-progressive disorder of posture and movement often associated with epilepsy and abnormalities in speech, vision and intellect resulting from a defect or lesion of the developing brain. There are 25 lakhs cerebral palsy affected children in India. AIM: To assess the efficacy of Rajayapana Basti (RB) and Baladi Yoga in motor disabilities of cerebral palsy in children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Total 98 children satisfying diagnostic criteria and between the age group of 2-10 years were included and randomly divided into two groups. In RB with Baladi group (n = 40) patients were treated with Mustadi Rajayapana Basti for 8 days, followed by oral administration of Baladi Yoga with honey and ghee for 60 days. Before administering Basti, patients were subjected to Sarvanga Abhyanga and Sastikashali Pinda Sveda. In the control group (n = 40), patients were given tablets of Godhuma Choorna for 60 days. Before administering the placebo tablet, the patients of the control group were given Sarvanga Abhyanga and Sastikashali Pinda Sveda for 8 days. The patients of the control group were given Basti with lukewarm water for 8 days. RESULTS: RB group has shown improvements in understanding ability (13.43%), speech (10%) and performance skill (11.11%), in fine motor functions such as putting small object in to a container (14.3%), throws the ball in all direction (21.8%), use of thumb and index finger (10.93%), retaining 2 inch cube in fist (19.04%), folds paper and inserts into envelope (10.30%), in gross motor functions such as in crawling (26.7%), sitting (31.7%), standing (13.75%), walking (9.5%) and claps hands (13.9%) respectively. CONCLUSION: Mustadi RB along with Baladi Yoga provided a significant improvement in all the parameters and has promising result in managing motor disabilities of cerebral palsy in children.