Abdulwakeel Ayokun-nun Ajao

By Abdulwakeel Ayokun-nun Ajao, Saheed Sabiu, Fatai Oladunni Balogun, Damilare Adedayo Adekomi and Sefiu Adekilekun Saheed

The rate of psychosis has drastically increased in recent years and the number of prescriptions for psychiatric medications has made an even bigger jump. With the worrisome side effects of the medications, which can pose serious health risks and make medication compliance difficult, coupled with the prohibitive cost for many patients, there is an obvious need for alternative solutions. This review presents the ambit of phytotherapy in psychotic care. Interestingly, the review revealed that, plant-based medicines are rich in phytonutrients of antipsychotic importance and may be effective as stand-alone treatments or supplementary to conventional interventions. Despite the emerging interest in phytotherapy for mental disorders, the majority of the formulations are yet to be clinically certified. However, simply disregarding them for this reason might be consequential and as such, for better and improved mental health, research into phytotherapeutic care for psychosis must remain to be continuously explored as a promising niche.

Part of the book: Psychosis

By Fatai Oladunni Balogun, Anofi Omotayo Tom Ashafa, Saheed Sabiu, Abdulwakeel Ayokun-nun Ajao, Chella Palanisamy Perumal, Mutiu Idowu Kazeem and Ahmed Adebowale Adedeji

In many nations of the world, a great number of deaths and morbidity arising from illnesses are witnessed due to lack of basic health care. Phytotherapy has continued to play a significant role in the prevention and treatment of diseases (communicable and noncommunicable). Interestingly, more than 80% of the global populations now adopt phytotherapy as a basic source of maintaining good healthy conditions, owing to the pronounced side effects, nonavailability, and expensive nature of conventional treatment options. While this review looked at the prospects and downsides of phytomedicine as it relates to the national health care system, it established the fact that although a number of medicinal plants had been resourceful (effective) against a range of diseases, with few developed into drugs based on the available phytotherapeutics, quite a large number of them are yet to scale through clinical trials to determine their safety and efficacy. It is believed that until this is done, we hope phytomedicine to be adopted or integrated into the national health care system in many countries.

Part of the book: Pharmacognosy