Dr. Alexandru-Cătălin Micu is a primary care physician, a doctor of psychiatry with expertise in aroma-phytotherapy, sexology and psychogeriatrics. In his medical practice, Dr. Alexandru Micu combines traditional psychiatric treatments with api-aroma-phytotherapy. In what cases are these combinations indicated? What plants help us? Here are just a few of the questions the specialist answered.
The interest in aroma-phytotherapy appeared since childhood, in fact it is a family tradition, my grandfather was a gynecologist and forensic doctor and, around the age of 50, he learned api-aroma-phytotherapy and acupuncture and began using them in medical practice in the 1930s in Cern?u?i. In the 1940s, when the Russians entered Bessarabia, he took refuge in Romania where he continued to practice medicine. I never knew my grandfather, but my mother kept him in our memory and often spoke to us about his passion for medicine and herbal medicine.
As a teenager, I was drawn to psychiatry, I studied at the Faculty of Medicine in Bucharest, and after years of traditional medical practice, I became interested in api-aromatherapy and combined this skill with traditional medicine because, in my opinion, they complement each other.
I acquired my herbal medicine skills at a course at a training center where general principles of herbal medicine were taught: Chinese herbal medicine, Ayurvedic herbal medicine and Western herbal medicine. After extensive observation of these therapies, I realized that there is a unity of traditional medicine principles that is complementary: one comes with traditional principles that have existed for more than 5000 years, unchanged, another comes with the discovery of effective phytochemical principles, and psychiatric counseling that helps you feel empathetic and conceptualize the key to the situation that has arisen.
For example, you realize that with a skin disease, the person has a feeling of aversion towards something specific, uncommunicated and frustrating, and, through this feeling, a skin problem or another psychosomatic problem gradually appears. Phytotherapy treatments for dermatological pathologies have a large psychotherapeutic component, since the skin and the central nervous system have a common ectodermal origin from an embryological point of view, and in traditional medicine, before modern medicine appeared, there was a very close relationship between dermatology and mental disorders.
The general consultation method is classic, there are all the elements of initiating the consultation, after which the patient says what he has to say and then, through certain questions I conceptualize the problem, its history, etc. It is important to let the patient speak because, according to my psychiatry professor: "the person will blow your mind of the diagnosis in the first three minutes if you are focused and relaxed at the same time"
Then, from the discussion with the patient, I realize how open he is to complementary treatments. Basicallly the patient decides how he wants to be treated, I am at his disposal. And if his request seems exaggerated to me, I refuse him. For example, there are many schizophrenic patients who only want treatment with plants and I refuse them, because schizophrenia cannot be treated with plants.
With plants and psychotherapy, you can generally treat mild functional pathology, meaning the person has a minor problem, no major symptoms, their work capacity is not affected, they basically just have some misunderstandings about the type of relationship, and the approach I aim to achieve is empathetic. Rogers has the so-called client-centered therapy: you walk for a few minutes "in the client's shoes"; you evaluate the situation from their point of view and at the same time you conceptualize what you have evaluated, and the patient gives you feedback. It's like a kind of game, from conceptualization to conceptualization and from feedback to feedback. Gradually, you get to the core of the problem. If the patient only asks for plants and it is possible, I evaluate whether they can be treated only with plants. But if they don't request or ask about phytotherapy, I don't give them treatment with plants because I noticed that the big problem in phytotherapy, respectively psychology and psychiatry, is the one-sidedness of the therapist.
More precisely, there is a tendency among many specialists who only know psychiatry or only psychology or only phytotherapy to absolutize and offer treatment strictly from their specialization. From my point of view, treatments can be combined, but only if the patient is open. I am ready to fulfill the patient's requests, but I am not ready to impose anything on him. He chooses what he feels, and I can confirm whether the treatment suits him or if the request is exaggerated.
In general, I don't think you should do just one type of therapy, because a person has a complex structure, which includes, in addition to the body and psyche, the social integration component, and the spiritual component, and then it is not enough to just talk to him, or to give him only chemical psychotropics, or only plants. A synergistic approach is necessary to combine all the needs of that person. I repeat, he "whispers" to me what he wants.
Most frequently, if the person does not have treatments with synthetic drugs, St. John's wort, basil and mint are used. St. John's wort, for example, cannot be combined with any synthetic drug. Pharmaceutical companies have noticed that patients who consume St. John's wort or red greffe reduce the concentration of any drug by half. Basically they are such effective liver purifiers that they significantly reduce the concentration of any drug and that is why they are not allowed. No studies have been done on other plants, but you can find in the prescription of many medicines the mention "do not combine with St. John's wort or red clover".
The most structured phytotherapy I have encountered so far is Ayurveda medicine because it offers both principles and practical methods, through which a continuum is created between substance and higher human structures, energy, psyche and even to the spiritual level.
I specialized in phyto-aromatherapy, in which there was also an Ayurveda component. For now, in Romania there is no Ayurveda course accredited by the Ministry of Health. However, there is the Association for the Promotion of Non-Conventional Medicines in Romania (AMN Romania) with the website www.ayus.ro . AYUS is the name of the Indian phytotherapy ministry and the association has published two books on Ayurveda in partnership with the Indian Embassy in Romania. In the world, outside of India, there are only four countries in which this AYUS ministry has promoted Ayurveda, and one of the 4 countries is Romania.
Yes, I have patients who benefit from the complementarity of these therapies and I am glad that I can help my patients through both Ayurveda, phytotherapy and psychiatry. The principles of Ayurvedic medicine, Western phytotherapy and traditional Chinese medicine largely overlap and complement each other, they do not contradict each other. I generally treat by overlapping and alternating these therapies.
Some of the traditional Romanian plants do not exist in Ayurvedic medicine, they do not grow in India, but using the principles of identifying the properties of plants in Ayurveda - sweet plants with certain properties, aromatic plants with other properties, savory plants with others - Romanian plants with the same benefits can also be used. For example, marigolds are salty plants with certain properties and practically using Ayurvedic principles you can know what to expect from marigolds. A salty plant has a very wide range of action because in Ayurvedic theory the salty taste has some very clear uses - the salty taste helps to eliminate anxiety and then marigolds will certainly help to eliminate anxiety, just like the captalan plant. Ayurvedic principles overlap very well with phytotherapy and are synergistic principles, they complement each other.
However, there are also plants with toxic potential. That is, plants that, in small doses, are effective, but in large doses are toxic. For example, wormwood is an extremely well-known therapeutic plant, but the treatment lasts a maximum of 10 days, after which you take a break and resume, because it has toxic potential.
At the other extreme is chamomile, which is a sweet plant and it is not a problem if the recommended daily dose is exceeded because it is a sweet plant and does not have toxic potential.
As a general conclusion, all plants have a psychic action component, there is no plant without psychic action, which is why plants can be used successfully as complementary therapies in many mental pathologies, when this is indicated and possible, and when the patient meets the necessary conditions for this type of treatment.
