Critical Appraisal of a Study on the Effects of Yoga on Depression and Anxiety in Women

Running head: CRITICAL APPRAISAL
CRITICAL APPRAISAL
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CRITICAL APPRAISAL
Summary of the article
Yoga is frequently regarded as an important stress management tool the can be used
to assist individuals during alleviating mental health condition like depression and anxiety
disorders (Sharma, 2014). The study conducted by Javnbakht, Kenari and Ghasemi (2009)
mainly aims to evaluate the influence of yoga during the process of relieving the symptoms
of complex mental health problems like depression and anxiety. The main focus group
selected by the author for this analysis are the women who were referred to a yoga clinic
during the tenure of July 2006 to July 2007. The selected group of participants were
randomly assigned in two different groups one is placebo group (n= 31) and another one is
experimental group (n = 34). The experimental group participated in weekly yoga classes two
times per week for tenure of 90 minutes for duration of 2 months. The control or the placebo
groups did not receive yoga. Both the groups are evaluated after 2 months with the help of
personal information questionnaire along with Beck and Speilberger tests. The analysis of the
result highlighted that prevalence of depression in the test group during pre-yoga condition
was 12.82 +/- 7.9 and post yoga condition was 10.70 +/- 6.04. The difference in the
depression level was however statistically insignificant with p = 0.13. However, when the
experimental group was compared with the control or the placebo group, it was found that
women who participated in the yoga classes showed a prominent decrease in the level of state
anxiety (p= 0.03) and trait anxiety (p< 0.001). The perceptive representation of the test
highlighted that the after 2 months of yoga, the level of depression of the experimental group
decreased by 11.8% (previously it was 44.1%) and was found to be 32.3%. Thus from the
extracted results, the authors concluded that the participation in yoga classes for 2 months can
cause significant reduction in the perceived level of stress and anxiety among the women who
suffer from anxiety disorders (Javnbakht, Kenari & Ghasemi, 2009). The authors further

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CRITICAL APPRAISAL
recommended that yoga can be regarded as an alternative non-pharmacological therapy for
the treatment of anxiety related disorders.
Summary of measurement, Validity and Reliability
The authors of the study included only the female patient within the study. Thus the
study scores less in the domain of sample validity. According to Krupnikov and Levine
(2014), sample validity ensures that selected group of sample covers a broad range within the
concept under the study such that, the result is replicable and is valid over a wide range of
sample. However, selection of only female participants in the study highlighted the “expert”
bias. According to Nolen-Hoeksema and Hilt (2013) the level of stress and depression differs
with age, gender and occupation. However, Javnbakht, Kenari and Ghasemi (2009) only
included female participants who documented psychological disorders or are under doctor’s
recommendation for taking yoga as a therapy for recovery.
The Javnbakht, Kenari and Ghasemi (2009) used 21-ietm Beck depression inventory
questionnaires for ascertaining depression among the selected group of participants.
According to Wang and Gorenstein (2013), Beck and Depression Inventory (BDI)
questionnaires asses the depressive symptoms of the patients and rates their intensity on the
scale from 0 to 3 (total score provided is 0 to 63). Higher the BDI score, greater is the
indication of the depressive mood. 0 to 9 score is regarded as depressive mood, 10 to 18 as
low depressive mood, 19 to 20 moderate depressed mode and 30 to 63 score is the indicators
of severely depressed mood. Thus it can be said that single tool, BDI score is used to analyze
the depression score of the selected groups of the participations and hence the study is
reliable. According to Noble and Smith (2015), reliability is the degree to which an
assessment tool produces consistent and stable results. In order to elucidate the level of
anxiety, the authors used State-Trait anxiety inventory (Speilberger questionnaire). It is a