Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-1-2012

Comments

This article has been peer reviewed. It was published in: Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal.

Volume 14, Issue 3, March 2012, Pages 174-177.

The published version is available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3372027/.

Copyright © Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The history of epilepsy and its treatments dates back to at least 4 millennia. Avicenna, c. 980 AD in Bukhara, Khorasan-1037 in Hamedan was a Persian-speaking Iranian physician, who has many recommendations and suggested various therapies for epilepsy in his book, The Canon of Medicine.

METHODS: We first reviewed the most important ancient treatments for epilepsy mentioned by Avicenna and considered those as the key words for our next step. Then, we made a literature search (medline and scopus) with those key words to find out new scientific findings in modern medicine about the Avicenna's suggestions.

RESULTS: Among the Avicenna's recommended therapies for epilepsy, only Rue has been tested for anticonvulsant activities in modern medicine. Interestingly, it had a dose dependent anticonvulsant effect.

CONCLUSION: It is worthwhile to consider the Avicenna's recommended therapies for epilepsy and to design future scientific studies based on his suggestions.

PubMed ID

22737575

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