Yoga has been growing in popularity among Westerners for years. Many people benefit from the combination of physical exercises and meditation techniques, which is practiced in yoga. Yoga has also already proven effective in previous studies as a remedy for depressive feelings in a general population. British scientists have recently investigated whether yoga has a similar effect in people with mental disorders.
People with various mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, anxiety disorders and alcoholism, were studied in the study. It turned out that yoga is also effective in fighting depressive feelings in this particular group of people. This result is interesting because yoga can now be used as a therapy tool in patients with various mental disorders.
In addition, the researchers concluded that people with mental disorders can have as much discipline to sustain yoga practice in the long term as mentally healthy people. With this, yoga offers an alternative for patients who do not want to perform or maintain other physical activity.
In addition, the study showed that there is a link between the number of yoga sessions and depressive feelings. The more yoga was practiced, the greater the decrease in depressive feelings.
These findings show that yoga is a promising therapy tool in people with mental disorders. Future research will need to show which type of yoga and which components of yoga are most effective in fighting depressive feelings. It is also not yet known whether the effect of yoga changes in home practice compared to on-site yoga sessions led by an instructor. If these questions are answered in the future, yoga as a therapy tool may be used even more specifically in people with mental disorders and depressive symptoms.
Vanessa is originally from the Ukraine. She has been living in Florida for the last 10 years. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Central Florida and a Master’s degree in Technical Writing from the University of South Florida. She covers mostly health and health-related issues for the Scientific Origin.
