Yoga for a healthy psyche

Depression: Passing the sadness through yoga

29/01/2013

According to the users, yoga can have many positive effects on health, ranging from strengthening the cardiovascular system and the musculoskeletal system to relieving stress and preventing mental illnesses such as depression or schizophrenia. Researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry and Behavioral Research at the Duke University School of Medicine in North Carolina (USA) have teamed up with Indian scientists to systematically evaluate existing studies that focus on using yoga to treat mental illness.

The goal was the „the systematic study of evidence of the effectiveness of yoga in the treatment of selected mental illness“, Write Meera Balasubramaniam from the Duke University School of Medicine and colleagues in the journal „Frontiers in psychiatry“ (on-line).

To this end, the researchers selected from 124 existing studies on yoga 16, which met their high requirements for a scientific study of the effect of yoga on mental illness. The evaluation of the 16 studies showed that the exercise, stretching and breathing exercises definitely have a demonstrable positive effect on some mental illnesses, while in others there were contradictory effects.

Yoga for depression and schizophrenia
For example, there is evidence of a possible use of yoga in depression, reports the psychiatrist Meera Balasubramaniam. For example, four studies clearly demonstrated a positive effect of yoga in patients with mild depression - even without complementary psychotherapeutic or drug treatment. In patients with schizophrenia, yoga also showed in three studies a positive effect, but only as an adjunct to drug therapy, the researchers continue. Even in children with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), yoga has shown quite promising results in two studies. In addition, three studies found a positive effect of yoga on sleep disorders. In relation to „cognitive disorders and eating disorders revealed, however, the study contradictory results“, report Balasubramaniam and colleagues. A panacea for the psyche is therefore not yoga. The positive effects on body and mind, however, can not be denied. (Fp)

Also read about yoga:
Yoga for the cure of breast cancer
Grief burdens the heart
Digressive thoughts make you unhappy

Picture credits: CFalk