Critical Appraisal of a Qualitative Study on Yoga Intervention for PTSD Patients

Critical Appraisal
Title page
Student Name:
HLSC122 Semester 2, 2018
Assessment 3: Critical appraisal of evidence
Word count:

Critical appraisal
Jindani, F. A., & Khalsa, G. S. (2015). A yoga intervention program for patients suffering
from symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder: A qualitative descriptive study. Journal
of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 21(7), 401-408.
doi:10.1089/acm.2014.0262
Introduction:
The essence of critical evaluation lies in a balanced appraisal which necessitates
logical as well as objective identification of the systematic inquiry that underpins the
study (Polit, 2017). This report analyzes the strengths, weaknesses and limitations of
the qualitative study on ‘the yoga interventional program for patients with features of
post-traumatic stress disorder’ to consider its applicability in practice. In this study, the
title provides clear and concise description about the article and the abstract provides
valuable insight about the study’s complexity. Jindani (2015) has given appropriate
purpose with an achievable objective to understand the perceptions of PTSD-patients
regarding KY program. They have given appropriate rationale and importance in
proposing this study with a detailed background to the study.
Body:
PART A
Authorship
The clinical and research expertise can be discerned from the brief biographies
of authors that provide information about academic qualifications, affiliations, current
position as well as place of work (Boswell, 2017). In this study, the author Jindani has a
PhD degree working at the Addiction & Mental-Health centre, Ontario, Canada which

shows that the author is expertise in the field of Addiction and mental-health whereas
the author Khalsa with a BA degree is from the University of Toronto’s Mult-Faith Centre
for Spiritual-study & practice. They should have mentioned about their major specialty
subject in their qualification. They have failed to provide their designation in their work
place to trace out their expertise in the particular field of work, especially related to the
current study. No conflicts of interest and competing financial interests were noted.
They have acknowledged the Kundalini yoga teachers and study-subjects for their kind
contribution to their study. Increased possibility for sampling bias is noted.
Research questions/objectives
Objectives are the specific accomplishments that are developed to attain what
the author is intended to study (Greenhalgh, 2017). Here, the researchers have stated a
clear objective as ‘to understand the perceptions of individuals with post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) about the Kundalini yoga (KY) (trauma-sensitive) program’ is
achievable and follows from the study problem.
PTSD that is characterized with re-experiences of traumatic events with physical
and psychological-distress are often controlled by cognitive-behavioral and extended-
exposure therapies (Resnick, 2012), but sometimes fail to control PTSD-features
causing re-trauma. Yoga with mind-body practice is found to be beneficial for them, but
only limited studies have explored their perceptions about participating in yoga-program
(Alexander, 2013, Cramer, 2013). Absence of previous studies to explore the
perceptions of yoga-treatment among PTSD-patients and presence of studies only to
investigate the effect of yoga-therapy has motivated them to propose this study to
understand the perceptions of PTSD-patients about KY-program.