Psychology Article Summary: Yoga's Impact on Anxiety and Depression

This article summary examines a study on the effects of yoga on anxiety and depression, focusing on a study involving women referred to a yoga clinic. The study aimed to determine the impact of yoga on alleviating symptoms of anxiety and depression. Participants were divided into experimental and control groups, with the experimental group attending yoga classes. Data was collected using personal information questionnaires, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. The results indicated that yoga effectively reduced both trait and state anxiety, as well as depressive symptoms. The study highlights the potential of yoga as a therapeutic tool for managing anxiety and depression, particularly for women, and suggests its consideration as a potential alternative or supplement to medication.

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ARTICLE SUMMARY
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ARTICLE SUMMARY
The article titled Effects of Yoga on Anxiety and Depression talks about the benefits of
yoga. Yoga is a Sanskrit words meaning unification or union. It is believed that doing yoga could
largely benefit the health of the individuals as the techniques of yoga help in retaining a strong
balance between the mind and the body. According to the article, yoga could further be classified
as Karma yoga, Gyana yoga, Bhakti yoga and Ashtanga yoga. The importance of the topic could
be fathomed from the fact that several studies have been previously conducted to examine yoga’s
influence and all those studies have found a positive outcome.
The aim of the article is that it seeks to examine yoga’s influence in alleviating the
symptoms of anxiety and depression in women especially those referred to a yoga clinic. For the
study, the authors used a sample of women who were referred to a clinic using yoga as the
treatment from the years between 2006 and 2007. The authors included a sample where they had
no prior records of depression, anxiety or any other psychological disorder who voluntarily
agreed to experience yoga therapy.
The researchers used personal information questionnaire, the 21-item Beck Depression
Inventory to be specific, to record the data. The researchers used this inventory to measure the
depressive symptoms if any in the patients during the weeks prior to taking the therapy. Apart
from this, the researchers also used the State-Trait anxiety inventory consisting of 20 items.
The women were divided into two groups with one group being given Ashtanga yoga
classes twice every week – the experimental groups – while the other group was not given any
yoga classes – the control group. The average age of the women included in the experimental
group was 31.44 with 9.10 years above and below in the experimental group. The control
group’s average was was 31.31 with 10.5 years above and below. In the experimental group, 34

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female participants were included whereas the control group had 31 participants. The researchers
excluded the cases involving psychiatric disorders history, history of drug abuse and yoga
experience in the past from as per the personal information questionnaire. They used the T-test to
analyze the data and Wilcoxon statistical tests with the help of the SPSS 13.0 software.
The data analysis revealed that the mean depressive scores of the female participants in
the experimental group were 10.79 after undertaking yoga classes whereas before it was 12.82.
Similar reduction was observed in depression symptoms pre and post yoga intervention as well
with the rate declining to 32.3% from 44.1%. The findings suggested that yoga is effective in
reducing both trait and state anxiety as revealed from the tests conducted. Furthermore, the
researchers also asserted that yoga as an effective tool to reduce anxiety levels must be
considered by individuals in the future. Women in particular could be largely benefitted from
yoga treatment especially in reducing anxiety and could be an effective replacement of or
addition to medication.

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Bibliography:
Javnbakht, M., Kenari, R. H., & Ghasemi, M. (2009). Effects of yoga on depression and anxiety
of women. Complementary therapies in clinical practice, 15(2), 102-104.