Heated yoga may reduce depression in adults

In a randomized controlled clinical trial of adults with moderate to severe depression, those who participated in passionate yoga sessions experienced significantly greater reductions in depressive symptoms compared to a control group.

The results of the trial, conducted by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, indicate that heated yoga could be a viable treatment option for patients suffering from depression.

During the eight-week trial, 80 participants were randomized into two groups: one who received 90-minute Bikram yoga sessions practiced in a 105 F room and a second group who was placed on a list of ‘waiting period’ (participants on the waiting list completed the yoga intervention after their waiting list period). A total of 33 participants from the yoga group and 32 participants from the waitlist group were included in the analysis.

Participants in the intervention group were prescribed at least two yoga classes per week, but overall they completed an average of 10.3 classes over eight weeks.

After eight weeks, yoga participants had significantly greater reductions in depressive symptoms than waitlist participants, as assessed by the clinician-rated Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (IDS-CR) scale.

Additionally, investigators observed that 59.3 percent of yoga participants had a 50 percent or greater reduction in symptoms, compared to 6.3 percent of waitlist participants. Additionally, 44 percent of participants in the yoga group had IDS-CR scores so low that their depression was considered in remission, up from 6.3. percent in the waiting list arm.

Depressive symptoms were reduced even in participants who received only half the prescribed yoga dose, suggesting that heated yoga sessions just once a week might be beneficial.

Yoga and heat-based interventions could potentially change the course of treatment for patients with depression by providing a non-drug approach with added physical benefits to boot, said lead author Maren Nyer, director of yoga studies at the depression clinical and research program in Massachusetts. General Hospital and assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

We are currently developing new studies with the goal of determining the specific contributions of each heat and yoga element to the clinical effects we have observed in depression, Nyer added.

Participants rated the heated yoga sessions positively and experienced no serious adverse effects associated with the intervention.

Future research is needed to compare heated versus unheated yoga for depression to explore whether heat has greater benefits than yoga for the treatment of depression, particularly given the promising evidence for hyperthermia whole body as a treatment for major depressive disorder, said the lead author. David Mischoulon, director of the depression clinical and research program at MGH.

Other authors include Lindsey B. Hopkins, Megha Nagaswami, Richard Norton, Chris C. Streeter, Bettina B. Hoeppner, Chloe EC Sorensen, Lisa Uebelacker, Jill Koontz, Simmie Foster, Christina Dording, Naoise Mac Giollabhui, Albert Yeung, Lauren B Fisher, Cristina Cusin, Felipe A. Jain, Paola Pedrelli, Grace A. Ding, Ashley E. Mason, Paolo Cassano, Darshan H. Mehta, Christina Sauder, Charles L. Raison, Karen K. Miller, Maurizio Fava and David Mischoulon .

This study was supported by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.