Nutritional Psychiatry as Basis of Nutraceutical Development for Mental Illness in Aging Population

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Medical science is on the toes with an increase in the NCD and novel emergence of viral strains in the recent times. With the changing face of physical health challenges, potential task of managing psychiatric illnesses demands more efforts clinically and academically. Psychiatry after more than ten decades is still evolving. Conventional psychiatry has counseling and some pharmaceutical solutions. But it does have limitations to medicines due to variable restricting criteria in diverse patients and diseases. Geriatric population is one of the criteria. Integrative approach of multiple sciences like physical therapy, CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), REBT (rational emotive behavioral therapy) and nutrition has established their efficacy in the management of the psychiatric diseases in diverse situations. Nutritional psychiatry is one of the parallel therapeutic tools in psychiatric management. The role of diet and various micronutrients in physical and psychological health is evident. Nutrients are being used to treat various psychiatric conditions with satisfactory results. Modern nutritional sciences too are evolving and getting revised with the wisdom of ancient different cultural nutritional diet habits. For example, Mediterranean diet is gaining popularity among the scientists as its nutritional scientific base is helpful in many of the systemic diseases. Ayurveda is one of the oldest documented health sciences which is a rich source of knowledge on the therapeutic nutrition. Ayurveda has detailed literature on dietetics and psychology together. This chapter elaborates on the nutritional psychiatry as the basis for geriatric psychology and the efficient integration of Ayurveda dietetics and Ayurveda psychiatry. The chapter has a goal to validate the Ayurveda theories and nutrients mentioned in the treatment of the psychological disorders with the latest research in nutritional psychiatry. The role of nutraceuticals in prediction, prevention and treatment is commendable in the field of health sciences. The chapter aims to integrate the Ayurvedic nutraceutical formulations in the management of geriatric psychiatry with the modern pharmaceutical standards. It also incorporates various supporting theories from Ayurveda and their application in the field of nutritional psychiatry and geriatric psychology.