Far eastern breathing exercises can help against depression

Study: How Qi Gong Affects Depressive

Qi Gong is firmly established in traditional Far Eastern medicine. It is a series of movement, concentration and breathing exercises that are designed to cultivate the body and mind. In a new study psychologists now examined whether Qi Gong is also suitable for the treatment of depression and came to positive findings.

In a recent study, the psychologist team headed by Professor Johannes Michalak from the University of Witten / Herdecke investigated whether exercises from the Far East Qi Gong are suitable for the treatment of depression. The team found that certain exercises cause depressed people to remember more about positive things again. The research results were recently published in the journal "Psychopathology".

Qi Gong involves breathing, movement and concentration exercises, which according to a recent study can also help against depression. (Image: ulza / fotolia.com)

Widespread depression

According to the Witten psychologists about every fifth resident in Germany suffers from depression at some point in his life. Recent research has already shown that depression is associated with a memory disorder. Where healthy people mostly remember positive experiences, depressive people primarily focus on negative things. In addition, her memories are often vague and unconcrete. "Depressed people have difficulty remembering specific outcomes from their lives, such as concrete events that took place in one day and one place," the researchers wrote in a press release on the study results.

Promote positive thinking with Far Eastern movements

Due to the large number of those affected, experts around the world are desperately looking for new ways to tackle depression. Qi Gong from traditional Chinese medicine could establish itself here as a non-drug treatment approach or at least as a support. Study leader Professor Michalak explains the approach: "Usually, depressives are more likely to show a collapsed posture and they also feel physically depressed." Qi Gong exercises are designed to compensate for this tendency.

Body and mind influence each other

The researchers tested their treatment approach on forty patients treated for depression in a clinic. The psychologists put together certain upward movement movements from the Qi Gong, from which the participants should profit. The team supports the idea behind a series of basic research that showed that posture, movement and mental processes influence one another.

Promising first results

As the psychologists report, the expected result actually occurred. After some time, the participants increasingly recalled positive memory contents and were increasingly able to access specific events from their lives. The team around Michalak is pleased: "This was just a short experiment, of course, and we were able to show that certain righting movements have a positive effect on the depressive memory."

Approach still needs to be developed

"The study does not show that such movements can treat depressive patients," says Michalak. Nevertheless, these are encouraging findings that should be better researched in the future. Qi Gong is already offered in numerous clinics and also in private courses. It relieves blockages, increases stress resistance and promotes stress reduction. Whether it can actually treat depression, must be examined in more detail. (Vb)