Elizabeth Dogbey

Traditional medicine is a comprehensive healthcare system that comprises specialties such as spiritualism, divination, and herbalism. It is believed that epilepsy and neuropsychiatric comorbidities have both natural and supernatural causes.

Plants have been used for decades for the treatment of epilepsy and neuropsychiatric comorbidities. Unlike contemporary medicine which comprises pure compounds, and applies a systematic way of diagnosis and treatment, plant medicine is administered as a whole concoction that may contain cytotoxic substances and neurotoxins that are harmful to the body, which is the main drawback in traditional medicine practice. But contemporary medicine also comes with downsides including, cost and side effects, making the preference for herbal medicine by low-income individuals high.

In recent times traditional medicine is being integrated into contemporary treatment where the compound responsible for the activity is isolated, screened, and taken through several stages of clinical trials. With cutting-edge research, this integration can be tailored toward personalized treatment. Where different lead can be identified for the treatment of the different types of epilepsy and neuropsychiatric comorbidities based on individual symptoms, considering the variety of plants used traditionally for treatment.

Future perspectives are quite bright if traditional medicine is formally acknowledged and integrated into Western medicine.