When individuals experience varied forms of depression, medications are utilized to minimize the condition.
However, medications for depression need not be the only option.
According to a study conducted by Boston University Medical Center, practicing yoga twice weekly may reduce the signs of depression. Following is the supporting article from Neuroscience News.
People who suffer from depression should participate in yoga and deep (coherent) breathing classes at least twice weekly, plus practice at home to receive a significant reduction in their symptoms.
The findings, which appear in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, provide preliminary support for the use of yoga-based interventions as an alternative or supplement to pharmacologic treatments for depression.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is common, recurrent, chronic and disabling. Due in part to its prevalence, depression is globally responsible for more years lost to disability than any other disease. Up to 40 percent of individuals treated with antidepressant medications for MDD do not achieve full remission. This study used lyengar yoga that has an emphasis on detail, precision and alignment in the performance of posture and breath control.
Individuals with MDD were randomized to the high dose group, three 90-minute classes a week along with home practice, or the low dose group, two 90-minute classes a week, plus home practice. Both groups had significant decreases in their depressive symptoms and no significant differences in compliance. Although a greater number of subjects in the high dose group had less depressive symptoms, the researchers believe attending twice weekly classes (plus home practice) may constitute a less burdensome but still effective way to gain the mood benefits from the intervention.
“This study supports the use of a yoga and coherent breathing intervention in major depressive disorder in people who are not on antidepressants and in those who have been on a stable dose of antidepressants and have not achieved a resolution of their symptoms,” explained corresponding author Chris Streeter, MD, associate professor of psychiatry and neurology at Boston University School of Medicine and a psychiatrist at Boston Medical Center.
According to Streeter, compared with mood altering medications, this intervention has the advantages of avoiding additional drug side effects and drug interactions. “While most pharmacologic treatment for depression target monoamine systems, such as serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine, this intervention targets the parasympathetic and gamma aminobutyric acid system and provides a new avenue for treatment.”
The symptoms of depression are so difficult to experience.
I know many individuals who feel helpless and powerless because of depression. If yoga could help, why not take a few classes, experience the impact, and see if those symptoms can be reduced naturally?
I think it is a great neuroscientific option for some very challenging symptoms.
Gerry Vassar, President/CEO, Lakeside Educational Network
Source: http://neurosciencenews.com/yoga-depression-reduction-6193/
