Yoga May Help Treat Depression, Anxiety Disorders

Related Encyclopedia • Anxiety • Depression (Major Depressive Disorder) • Dysthymia • Seasonal Affective Disorder More... Related Healthscout Videos Childhood Depression: Next Steps for Research Children and Antidepressants Symptoms of Childhood Depression How Did You Cope With Your Husband's Depression? More... Related Animations • Bipolar Disorder Animation • Depression More... Related Drug Information • Ambien • Avandia • Effexor XR • Paxil More... Related News Articles • Low Vitamin D Tied to Depression in Older Adults • Stroke Patients at High Risk for Falls • Music Hath Charms to Calm Hypertension • Migraine Medications May Cause 'Serotonin Syndrome' More...

Page:  << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >>

She said the style or school of yoga practiced didn't seem to matter. "We had hatha, ashtanga, bikram, vinyasa, and kripalu" practitioners included in the yoga group, Streeter said, "and many had been trained in several different schools."

According to Streeter, "this all gives us one of the mechanisms by which yoga may be having a beneficial effect. There could be other mechanisms."

But another expert pointed to what he considered flaws in the research.

Text Continues Below

---

Zindel Segal, chairman of psychotherapy and a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Toronto, has for years studied the use of behavioral interventions to alleviate psychological woes.

He said the Boston researchers were to be commended for using brain scan imaging technologies to investigate the effectiveness of these techniques. But he questioned why the yoga group was simply compared to a sedentary reading group and not to another movement-based group.

"Exercise itself may have some effects on GABA, so I think in this study, you'd really want that comparison," he said. Including such a control group would make it clear that it was yoga and not just an hour of physical exertion that was responsible for the brain changes.

He also pointed out that all of the people in the study were mentally healthy, and clinical depression and anxiety disorders involve more than the "daily fluctuations in stress and tension" that healthy individuals are prone to.

"We know that yoga can have a profound effect" on smoothing out life's daily ups and downs, Segal said. "But so does working out on a Stairmaster for an hour."

Segal also questioned the role of GABA in depression. While it may play a role in anxiety disorders, "GABA is not one of the main neurotransmitters that seems to be a part of the depression story," he said. Other neurochemicals -- most notably serotonin -- play much bigger roles in the disorder, he said.

Page:  << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >>