Ayurvedic Psychological Constructs and Neurobiological Models of Depression and Anxiety

Abstract

Depression and anxiety disorders are multifactorial psychiatric conditions characterized by disturbances in affect regulation, stress responsiveness, cognitive control, and autonomic balance. Contemporary neuroscience has identified several biological substrates involved in these conditions, including monoaminergic dysregulation, hyperactivity of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis, impaired neuroplasticity, and altered connectivity between limbic and prefrontal brain regions. However, these models do not fully account for inter individual variability in symptom expression, illness chronicity, and differential treatment response. This narrative review examines selected constructs from Ayurvedic psychology, namely Manas, Triguna, Vishada, and Udvega, and evaluates their conceptual correspondence with established neurobiological frameworks of depression and anxiety. Classical descriptions of mental regulation, affective instability, and stress vulnerability are systematically compared with contemporary evidence related to neurotransmitter signalling, brain derived neurotrophic factor mediated plasticity, autonomic nervous system imbalance, and affective network dysfunction. Emphasis is placed on functional domains such as attentional control, emotional reactivity, stress adaptation, and behavioural regulation. Rather than asserting diagnostic or therapeutic equivalence, this review positions Ayurvedic psychological constructs as phenomenological and functional frameworks that parallel modern systems based interpretations of mental disorders. Such structured cross disciplinary mapping may contribute to hypothesis generation, refinement of biopsychosocial models, and the development of integrative research directions in mental health science.