La Trobe University HLT1RAE Essay: Yoga's Role in Mental Wellbeing

This essay summarizes a research article investigating the effects of yoga on anxiety and depression in women. The study, conducted with a sample of women, utilized questionnaires like the Beck Depression Inventory and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory to assess the impact of yoga interventions. Participants were divided into experimental and control groups, with the experimental group undergoing yoga sessions. The results indicated a significant reduction in both state anxiety and depression scores in the yoga group compared to the control group. The essay discusses the methodology, findings, and limitations of the study, emphasizing the potential of yoga as a complementary therapy for managing anxiety and depression, while also acknowledging the need for further research with larger and more diverse samples. It concludes by highlighting the importance of considering individual differences and the potential for yoga to be a beneficial intervention for women's mental health.

Running Head: ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION
ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION
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Yoga is a perceived alternative medicine used in stress management and helps in the
alleviation of dejection and anxiety disorders. Yoga maintains a balance between physique and
mind. It is separated into four primary branches which include Bhakti yoga, Karma yoga, Gyana
yoga, and Ashtanga yoga.
Ashtanga yoga is useful for deep relaxation of muscles and control of breathing. It also
promotes mind skills like accuracy and memory of the brain. Several studies have proved that
Yoga is efficient in the management of stress-related maladies. Research by Taherkhani
disclosed that Yoga could be utilized in handling the obsessive-compulsive disorder (Javnbakht ,
Hejazi Kenari , & Ghasem, 2009). Woolery showed that Yoga may perhaps lessen signs from
young dejected people. Yoga is known to have shown some psychopathological, diabetes,
cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. In his study, Michalsen concluded that women in
Germany showed improvement in their distress after doing yoga practice for three months.
Methods and Constituents
The study done involved a sample of women taken in a year. The sample used women
who had no renowned history of psychosomatic disorder. The Beck Inventory depression is the
most commonly used questionnaire in detecting depression and as applied in this case. The
researchers in this case also applied the state-trait anxiety inventory (Javnbakht , Hejazi Kenari ,
& Ghasem, 2009). The participants were alienated into an investigational cluster and control
cluster. Both the control group and the cluster under test were reexamined after two months. Past
cases of past psychiatric disorders and drug abuse were not considered in this evaluation. The
collected data was then analyzed using t-test by use of SPSS.

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Outcomes
The comparison of educational status did not reveal any noteworthy alteration amid the
two clusters. The university learning was noted between 18 and 15 occurrences in the two
groups. There was a minor decrease in the mean depressive score after a Yoga intervention.
Depression dropped insignificantly from 44.1% to 32.3%. State anxiety dropped significantly
after Yoga administration (Javnbakht , Hejazi Kenari , & Ghasem, 2009). The average
apprehension notch in the control cluster showed no significant changes after re-examination.
Discussion and Conclusion
The study gave a comparison between depression and anxiety before and after Yoga
administration. The groups matched in terms of gender, education and educational state. Yoga
was found to be capable of decreasing state-trait and anxiety. The results showed that Yoga was
useful in the treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. There is a need to consider the
efficacy of Yoga to decrease anxiety intensities. We are supposed focus on individual
attentiveness and contemplation to expedite self-control and effectiveness. Treatment of
depression requires a long time as compared to general anxiety.it is important to examine each of
these sicknesses individually. The study involved females only and hence it could not give
general information in a population. The sample sizes were also small and hence the margin of
error was large. Future studies should include larger samples with mixed-gender so that the
findings could be more useful. The study proved that yoga could be more useful in the treatment
of depression in women.

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References
Javnbakht , A., Hejazi Kenari , R., & Ghasem, M. (2009). Effects of yoga on depression and
anxiety of women. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 15(2), 102-104.