Samal Mousumi, Sahoo Krushna Chandra, Pati Sanghamitra, Tripathy Saumya Ranjan, Parida Manoj Kumar, Das Bidyut Kumar
Regional Medical Research Centre, Indian Council of Medical Research, Bhubaneswar, India.
Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Srirama Chandra Bhanja Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, India.
Front Med (Lausanne). 2020 Jan 14;6:323. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2019.00323. eCollection 2019.
Severe fatigue, pain, deformity, and disability, are the major concerns for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The extreme pain experienced by the patients often force them to experiment with various indigenous substances including animals and animal products. However, there is little evidence on the use of animals or animal products as traditional medicine in RA. Hence, this study was aimed to explore the experience and perception of patients toward the use of animals and animal products for the treatment of RA. A qualitative, explorative study was conducted at the out-patient-department of Rheumatology of a tertiary care medical college and hospital at Cuttack, Odisha, India. Out of 113 patients with RA, 18 patients gave history of use of animal and/or animal products and were selected for in-depth interviews. The content analysis methods were used for data analysis. Four major categories emerged: (1) prevailing patterns of traditional treatment of RA using animals, (2) beliefs and values behind the traditional treatment of RA, (3) sources and traditional learning pathway of indigenous practices on RA, and (4) ethical aspects of the indigenous practice of using animals and/or animal products in the treatment of RA. This study revealed the practice of eating dead animals to get relief from RA. However, there was hardly any perceived positive outcome of the practice; which indicates the lack of awareness of rational, scientific, treatment, and prevalence of irrational and unethical practices for the treatment of RA. Hence, community awareness, social mobilization, and newer screening tools are necessary to improve the timely detection and prevention of irrational treatment practices among RA patients.
严重疲劳、疼痛、畸形和残疾是类风湿性关节炎（RA）的主要问题。患者所经历的极度疼痛常常迫使他们尝试各种本土物质，包括动物及动物制品。然而，几乎没有证据表明在类风湿性关节炎中使用动物或动物制品作为传统药物的情况。因此，本研究旨在探索患者对于使用动物及动物制品治疗类风湿性关节炎的体验和看法。在印度奥里萨邦科塔克市一所三级医疗学院和医院的风湿病门诊进行了一项定性的探索性研究。在113名类风湿性关节炎患者中，18名有使用动物和/或动物制品的病史，并被选入进行深入访谈。采用内容分析法进行数据分析。出现了四大类：（1）使用动物治疗类风湿性关节炎的传统模式；（2）类风湿性关节炎传统治疗背后的信念和价值观；（3）类风湿性关节炎本土疗法的来源和传统学习途径；（4）在类风湿性关节炎治疗中使用动物和/或动物制品的本土疗法的伦理方面。本研究揭示了通过食用死动物来缓解类风湿性关节炎的做法。然而，这种做法几乎没有带来任何明显的积极效果；这表明缺乏对合理、科学治疗的认识，以及在类风湿性关节炎治疗中存在不合理和不道德做法的普遍情况。因此，提高社区意识、进行社会动员以及采用更新的筛查工具对于及时发现和预防类风湿性关节炎患者中的不合理治疗做法是必要的。
