A randomized controlled clinical trial in adults with moderate to severe depression found that those who participated in a heated yoga session had significantly reduced symptoms of depression compared to a control group. Ta.
The results of the trial, led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, show that thermal yoga may be a viable treatment option for patients with depression.
In the eight-week trial, 80 participants were randomly divided into two groups. One group received a 90-minute session of Bikram yoga practiced in a 105-degree Fahrenheit room, and the other group was placed on a waiting list (waiting-list participants subsequently completed the yoga intervention). waiting list period). A total of 33 participants in the yoga group and 32 participants in the waitlist group were included in the analysis.
Participants in the intervention group were prescribed at least two yoga classes per week, but overall they attended an average of 10.3 classes over eight weeks.
After eight weeks, yoga participants had significantly reduced symptoms of depression than waitlist participants, as measured by the Clinician-Rated Depression Symptom Inventory (IDS-CR) scale.
Even participants who took only half the prescribed yoga “dose” experienced reduced symptoms of depression, suggesting that even just one hot yoga session a week may be effective.
The researchers also observed that 59.3% of yoga participants experienced a 50% or more reduction in symptoms, compared to 6.3% of waitlist participants. In addition, 44 percent of the yoga group achieved an IDS-CR score of 6.3, which was low enough to be considered depressed for remission. Percentage of waiting list departments.
Even participants who took only half the prescribed yoga “dose” experienced reduced symptoms of depression, suggesting that even just one hot yoga session a week may be effective.
“Yoga and heat-based interventions have the potential to transform the treatment of patients with depression by offering a drug-free approach and additional physical benefits,” said lead author of the Depression Clinical Yoga Study Director Maren Nair said. He has a research program at Massachusetts General Hospital and is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
“We are currently developing new studies aimed at determining the specific contribution of each component (heat and yoga) to the clinical effects observed in depression,” Nair added.
Participants rated the hot yoga sessions positively and did not experience any significant negative effects associated with the intervention.
“We sought to explore whether heat yoga has any benefits over yoga in the treatment of depression, especially given the promising evidence of whole body heat therapy as a treatment for major depressive disorder. “Future studies comparing heated yoga are needed,” he said. The lead author is David Mischoulon, director of the MGH Depression Clinical Research Program.
Additional authors include Lindsey B. Hopkins, Meghan Nagaswamy, Richard Norton, Chris C. Streeter, Bettina B. Hopner, Chloe EC Sorensen, Lisa Weberacker, Jill Koontz, Simmy Foster, Christina Dodding, Naoise Mac Giorabhoy, and Albert. Yong, Lauren B. Fisher, Christina Cashin, Felipe A. Jayne, Paola Pedrelli, Grace A. Ding, Ashley E. Mason, Paolo Cassano, Darshan H. Mehta, Christina Souder, Charles L. -Raison, Karen K. Miller, Maurizio Fava, and David Michelon.
This research was supported by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine.
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