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Study on yoga for mental illness

Meera Balasubramaniam et al.

January 2013

Mental health

Yoga (individual)

Meera Balasubramaniam, Shirley Telles and P. Murali Doraiswamy examined the effect of yoga on selected mental disorders.

To do this, they looked at 16 randomized, controlled studies that dealt with yoga and mental illness and were related to depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, perception, memory or attention.

The three researchers from the USA and India were able to demonstrate a potential benefit of yoga for depression, as an adjunct to pharmacotherapy for schizophrenia, for children with ADHD and for sleep disorders.

For cognitive and eating disorders, the studies examined produced contradictory results. There was a lack of studies that investigated yoga for prevention, relapse prevention or in comparison to conventional medicine.

Such studies would be desirable. However, the review suggests a positive impact of yoga on depression, sleep disorders and as a complementary treatment.

The most important information on the study at a glance

Indications: Mental illnesses, depression, ADHD, anxiety, schizophrenia
Institution: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
Title: Study on yoga for mental illness
Brief description: Study shows: Yoga helps with depression and sleep disorders, supports schizophrenia and ADHD, with promising results.
Original title: Yoga on Our Minds: A Systematic Review of Yoga for Neuropsychiatric Disorders
Link to the study: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3555015/