Effect of Yoga on Anxiety and Depression

This article examines the effect of yoga on anxiety and depression. It discusses the history and benefits of yoga, as well as studies that demonstrate its effectiveness in treating stress-related disorders. The article also highlights the limitations of these studies and suggests ways to improve future research.

Running head: EFFECT OF YOGA ON ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION
Effect of Yoga on Anxiety and Depression
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Author Note

1EFFECT OF YOGA ON ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION
Yoga refers to Hindu ascetic and spiritual practice that allow a person to control the
breathing power, enhances the power of medication, helps in maintaining a particular posture
and as well as helps in relaxation of the body. Over the year, yoga has been used as an important
tool of stress management and as a result, it can be used as a supporting treatment for the
depression and the anxiety disorder. As yoga allows the person to control the breathing
procedure that is why it is used as a tool of treating the stress and anxiety.
Yoga is generally considered as supportive way of the medicines. The word ‘Yoga’
comes from the Sanskrit language the meaning of this is unification or union. Yoga mainly helps
in maintaining the balance between the body and the mind of the individual. Yoga is divided into
four main branches and they are Bhakti yoga, Gyana yoga, Karma yoga and Asthanga yoga. By
practicing these four branches, an individual can gain control over the development of his/her
body and mind. Among the four section, Asthanga yoga has two subdivisions named Hatha yoga
and Raja yoga. The Hatha yoga is associated with the exercises, breathing control, deep
relaxation. On the other hand, the primary focus of Raja yoga is promoting the mind skills such
as memory, determination, concentration and as well as accuracy. Yoga can be a fruitful method
reducing the stress and as well as in various stress related disorder. In various studies, it is seen
that yoga can be used in various stress disorders like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
which is an anxiety disorder. In this disease, the patient feels uncomfortable and repetitive
behavior. In a study by Taherkhani showed that yoga is an effective treatment for the OCD and it
mainly supports the treatment of drug and causes better improvement than the drug treatment. In
another study performed by Woolery, demonstrated that yoga is critically helpful in reducing the
symptoms of the mild depression among the young children. This research finding was also
supported by the study of Pilkington. The research study of 30 years done by Khalsa, also stated

2EFFECT OF YOGA ON ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION
that attachment of Yoga with the medication procedures of the psychopathological disorders (for
example anxiety, depression), respiratory disorders like Asthma, cardiovascular problems like
hypertension showed better result. In another study in Germany performed on the distressed
women showed improvement in anxiety disorder by practicing the yoga for 3 months. The main
of this study is to examine the effect of yoga in the management of stress and anxiety. In order to
observe the effect, 35 female sample was sent to a yoga clinic for 1-year period. The sample size
included the new female patient who have decided to practice yoga without any serious
documented problem. In order to collect the data, two methods are mainly used. The randomly
divided experimental group was told to participate in the Asthangana yoga for 90 minutes per
day for 90 days. The control group was not participating in any yoga session. The mean value of
the anxiety score in experimental group (before yoga) and the post yoga score was significantly
different. Before the yoga session the anxiety state was documented in 41.2 % cases and after
the treatment the rate became 20.6% and that indicated that there was significant difference
between both of the condition ( p value= 0.03). This indicates that yoga has significant effect on
the stress and anxiety management. The unchanged anxiety score of the control group also
suggested the effect yoga on stress and anxiety.
In this study, total 65 female subject was taken to examine the effect. In order to perform
the study, were divided into two groups randomly. 34 female was in the experimental group
(n=34) and rest of the female population in the control group (n=31). In data collection, method
two methods were mainly used. The first one is the 21-item Back depression inventory (BDI)
and the one was the State- Trait inventory, which is also known as the Spielberger questionnaire.
Both of the method was considered as reliable method for assessing depression and its intensity.
The first method is used to assess the depression in the normal population and the intensity of the

3EFFECT OF YOGA ON ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION
depression. This method assesses the intensity of depression of the patient by rating them
through a scale from 0-3 and the total range of the scale is 0-63. The higher score of BDI
indicates towards severe depression. Most of the time the BDI score is associated with the
clinical symptoms of depression and sometimes presence of somatic emotional and cognitive
problems are also associated with this. The method is Spielberger questionnaire. In this method,
20 items are used for state anxiety and 20 items are used for trait anxiety by using the likert-
scale. The state anxiety can be described as transient emotional status of a sudden moment and
the trait anxiety is associated with the predisposition to react in a stressful condition with severe
anxiety. Both the experimental and control group was instructed to participate in the Asthanga
yoga exercises for 90 minutes each day and the process was followed for two months. In this
experiment, the female subjects, who had the history of psychiatric problems, experience of yoga
practice and cases of drug abuse, were excluded and the all subject population signed the consent
form for this experiment. The collected data was validated with the T-test and the Wilcoxon
statistical tests by using the SPSS 13.0 software. The results of the experiment were interrelated
on confidence levels of 95% and the P value was considered significant at less than 0.05 level.
The age and the educational qualification of the experimental and control group was not a
significant determinants for this experiment. The mean value of the depressive score of the
experimental group had a significant change in before yoga (12.82) and after yoga (10.79)
condition. Before yoga, the depression was found in 44.1% cases and after yoga, it was lowered
to 32.3% cases. Moreover, the mean value of state anxiety score before yoga was 2.29 in
experimental group and in the post yoga intervention, the score was 1.85. However, percentage
of anxiety was observed in 41.2 % cases in pre yoga condition and in the after yoga condition
this percentage decreased to 20.6%. That statistically showed the significant difference with a P

4EFFECT OF YOGA ON ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION
value of 0.03. The trait anxiety score in the experimental group in pre yoga condition was 65.3%
and after the yoga intervention, this percentage was downed to 20.6%. The P value (P value=
0.001) showed significant difference in that case.
In this study, the primary internal threats were the gender biasness, the small population
size and as well as the study was conducted in one particular yoga center. The age of the subject
population was not specified. The study was conducted only on the female population. As a
result, it failed to show the effect on overall population. The effect of yoga on the male
population was absent. The gender biasness of this study was one of the major threat for this
study. As the study was conducted on a very small population, the skewness of the data was not
enough and as a result, sometime desired result was absent. The single centered study is another
hindrance for this experiment. The study was conducted in time of two months and during this
period, the control group was not, receiving any yoga. It was not specified that during this time,
they did not experience any stressful condition. However, if the control group had experienced
any type of stress, this can alter the result and affect the ultimate conclusive result. The main
external threat was related to consent and which was nullified by signing the consent form from
the participants. As the study was gender bias, so it is very difficult to implement the study
result.
To overcome the external and internal threat of this study, the study can be done on both
male and female population and along with this, more number of subject should be chosen. The
duration of this study should be increased along with this, number of study center should also be
enhanced to increase the skewness.

5EFFECT OF YOGA ON ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION
Lastly, it can be concluded that yoga is a healthy practice along with proper medication.
The practice of yoga along with proper medicines has been proved to show significance
improvement in anxiety and depression problem.