Depression is a common mental disorder which adversely affects quality of life. The important characteristic of depression is the sadness of mood or loss of interest in many activities. Depression may be categorised as mild, moderate, or severe. A recent survey reported 15.9% of the urban South Indian population are suffering from depression.

Complementary therapies along with pharmacotherapy have been used in treating depression. Pranic Healing (PH) is an ancient healing therapy which focuses on the energy fields surrounding and within the human body. It is a no-touch complementary therapy utilising the prana or vital energy as a major source of healing. The healer applies prana on the energy body of the individual. It makes use of life forces that are available from the sun, air and ground to heal. Just as the physical body has vital and minor organs, the energy body has major, minor and mini chakras. The major chakras or centres not only control and energise the internal organs but also one’s psychological conditions.

PH helps to reduce chronic muscoskeletal pain, manipulate energy field of human participants and increase their wellbeing. Humans can view and experience the energy field. PH has attracted well-educated followers seeking to integrate its therapeutic practices in their working lives and personal growth. Our study seeks to find out the effect of PH as an adjuvant therapy in lessening the severity of the depression and improving participants’ work and activities.

Objectives:
Depression is a mental disorder, affecting the quality of life. Our study explores the efficacy of Pranic Healing (PH), as an adjuvant therapy in treating depression

Methods:
In this randomised double-blind controlled trial, 52 participants with a mean age of 34.4 years, with mild to moderate depression were assessed using the Hamilton Depression Rating (HAM-D) scale during the 5-week study. Both Medication + PH (MedPH) and Medication + Mock PH (MedMockPH) groups comprising 26 members received Pranic and mock healing lasting 20 minutes per session respectively once a week for 4 weeks, along with the antidepressant drug.

Results:
The average decrease in HAM-D score in MedPH was median 11 (Interquartile Range (IQR) 7–12) and was significantly higher compared with the MedMockPH group median 6.5 (IQR 3–9). At pre-assessment, both groups had 8 cases of mild and 18 cases of moderate depression. At post-assessment, HAM-D showed that the improvement in depression category was seen in 69.2% of participants in the MedMockPH group and 100% in MedPH group.

Conclusions:
These results give first the evidence that PH can aid as an adjuvant therapy for depressed people.

 

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