Overview of hiccups from the perspective of Persian medicine and modern medicine

Background and Purpose:

Hiccups are common and transitory complaints that affect a person's quality of life, especially when they get chronic or recur frequently. Treatment of hiccups includes the elimination of underlying causes, physical and pharmaceutical therapies and the use of complementary medicine. Persian medicine with a thousand years of experience offers precious practical skills for the treatment of a host of health problems. The purpose of this comparative study is to review the causes, diagnosis and treatment of hiccups from Persian medicine’s Perspective and the achievements of modern medicine.

Methods and Materials:

This is a literature Comparative study conducted on the Comprehensive traditional and Islamic medicine software and using the keywords "Fovaq" and "Hakhak" meaning hiccups. Also, we searched PubMed, Google Scholar and Scientific Information Database for Hiccups, Hiccough and Singultus. To find equivalents for old names of plants appropriate for the treatment of the hiccups in modern taxonomy, two botany references and electronic databases, namely, the United States Department of Agriculture and The Plantlist.org were used.

Causes for hiccups from Persian medicine’s viewpoint include diet causes, inappropriate lifestyle, hepatic and gastroesophageal reasons, drugs and poisons, abdominal penetrating injuries and diseases of other organs. Treatment for hiccups according to Persian medicine includes non-pharmaceutical and pharmaceutical treatments. These causes and treatments were matched with findings of modern medicine. Also, 29 medicinal plants used as oral, inhaled, and local remedies were also listed.

Although the classification of diseases in Persian medicine is fundamentally different from modern medicine, the approach, taking history, and many non-pharmacological treatments are in line with modern medicine. The present study is also the first to include reports for occurrence of hiccups following abdominal penetrating injuries and some types of headache. The medicinal plants recommended for hiccups treatment in Persian medicine could be evaluated for their efficiency through clinical trials in further studies.