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Background Rural Homoeopathic Hospital has been serving the community in and around Palghar for the past 20 years. Through a Central Government Scheme of Centre of Excellence, it received funds for setting up an inpatient psychiatric unit in 2012 whereby it could serve the wider community by admitting the patients with mental illness in a secure ward. This is the first part of two papers which deals with demographic analysis of the patients admitted in the psychiatry ward between 2014 and 2018. Objectives The case records were studied with a view to determine the demographic features, the clinical diagnosis and the duration of stay. Methodology All case records were studied as per a predetermined format to establish the demographic features, the clinical diagnosis and the duration of stay in the ward. Results Out of 1,015 patients seen, 35% were having alcohol withdrawal, 12.7% were having conversion, 9.8% were having suicidal attempt and 9.7% were suffering from anxiety. The duration of stay in the hospital was noticeably shorter than what has been reported from the allopathic admissions. Conclusion Alcoholism followed by conversion disorders, suicidal attempts and anxiety-panic conditions was the most common psychiatric condition with which patients were admitted. Males were predominating mainly due to their alcoholic condition. The duration of stay was reasonably short. The reasons for this would need further exploration.

Homoeopathic medical education finds itself at a crossroad, especially in the present era of COVID-19. Homoeopathy has lived up to its reputation for effective intervention in the past epidemics; however, this time, we have been at a somewhat loose end, finding ourselves at the mercy of the dominant medical establishment. We can emerge from this scenario by appealing to the sound principles enunciated by our Master, Dr. Hahnemann, but not shying away from incorporating the considerable advances that have taken place in the world of Medical education. The country’s health needs have changed significantly; the post-COVID-19 changes are likely to be far reaching. The current climate in which the National Educational Policy 2020 has been instituted and the National Homoeopathy Commission Act passed by the Parliament is propitious to bring about far-reaching changes in our educational system and institutions. This concept paper explores each of these strands and then weaves them together to suggest some guidelines for academicians, clinicians, and researchers to work on to revitalize homoeopathic education in the years to come.

Background Rural homoeopathic hospital has been serving the community in and around Palghar for the past 20 years. Through a Central Government Scheme of Centre of Excellence, it received funds for setting up an inpatient psychiatric unit in 2012 whereby it could serve the wider community by admitting the patients with mental illness in a secure ward. This is the second of two papers on the experience of homoeopathic treatment of psychiatric inpatients and details of the outcome of homoeopathic treatment to patients admitted between 2014 and 2018. Objective Efforts have been made to explore the outcomes of homoeopathic intervention, singly or as adjuvant treatment, for a variety of clinical conditions and to determine the commonly indicated remedies that were found useful. Methodology A standard operating procedure enabled symptom analysis and evaluation; it also enabled to erect the homoeopathic totality and institute treatment along with conducting the follow-up. Retrospective analysis using Outcome Related to Impact on Daily Living scale helped to establish the results of homoeopathic intervention. Results An excellent response to homoeopathic intervention was obtained for several clinical conditions like alcohol withdrawal (76.3%), conversion disorder (82.17%), suicide attempt (85.13%), anxiety disorders (84.19%), depressive disorders (75%) and somatoform (85.17%). The rate of improvement in schizophrenia (60%) and epilepsy (22.6%) was lower. The commonly indicated homoeopathic remedies for each clinical condition were identified. This information would help practitioners to acquire knowledge of a pool of remedies from which they could readily determine the similimum. Conclusion Homoeopathic treatment, either alone or as an adjuvant, is useful in the management of psychiatric inpatients for several clinical conditions. Remedies found useful in different clinical conditions need to be studied in greater depth to identify their leading indications.

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