Ayurvedic Versus Conventional Counseling in Mothers With Burnout-Syndrome

Ayurveda is a traditional Indian medicine: as a whole medical system it consists of diagnostic procedures and complex treatments. Ayurveda-treatment is based on Ayurvedic diagnosis and has a special focus on lifestyle and nutritional counseling, based on the individual constitution of the patient. Ayurvedic counseling can easily be followed by the patients in their day-to-day life and is an inexpensive way of self-care. In Ayurveda it is often used for the treatment of burnout-syndrome. However, no systematic data is available on its effectiveness in comparison to conventional standard diet and lifestyle counseling. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of Ayurvedic diet and lifestyle counseling compared to conventional standard diet and lifestyle counseling in outpatient mothers with burnout-syndrome.

Inclusion criteria

• signed informed consent
• age between 18 and 50
• mother of ≥ 1 child ≤ 12 years of age
• job, education or studies ≥ 20 hours per week
• subjective feeling of physical and mental exhaustion since ≥ 3 month
• ≥ 18 points in the MBI Subscale "emotional exhaustion" at screening

Exclusion criteria

• change of psychotropic drug medication ≤ 6 weeks before inclusion
• pregnancy or breastfeeding
• pre-diagnosed major depression
• serious chronic co-morbidity (e.g. CHF NYHA IV)
• serious acute somatic health conditions
• intake of opiods
• simultaneous participation in other trials
• praticipation in other trials during ≤ 6 month before inclusion