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Yogic Breathing Helps Fight Major Depression

A breathing-based meditation practice called Sudarshan Kriya yoga helped alleviate severe depression in people who did not fully respond to antidepressant treatments, according to a new study from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, found benefits to the use of controlled yogic breathing to help battle depression.

Penn researchers led by Anup Sharma, a neuropsychiatry research fellow in the department of psychiatry, conducted a randomized, controlled pilot study of 25 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) who were still depressed after more than eight weeks of antidepression medication treatment. They found that the patients who participated in Sudarshan Kriya yoga showed significant improvement in symptoms of depression and anxiety compared to patients treated solely with medication.

After two months, the control group showed no improvements but the yoga group’s mean Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) score decreased by several points, as did their total scores of the self-reported Beck Depression and Beck Anxiety Inventories.

More than half of the 41 million Americans who take antidepressants do not fully respond, which puts these patients at higher risk of relapse.

“With such a large portion of patients who do not fully respond to antidepressants, it’s important we find new avenues that work best for each person to beat their depression,” Dr. Sharma said. “Here, we have a promising, lower-cost therapy that could potentially serve as an effective, non-drug approach for patients battling this disease.”

The meditation technique is practiced in both a group setting and at home, and includes a series of sequential, rhythm-specific breathing exercises that bring people into a deep, restful and meditative state:  slow and calm breaths alternated with fast and stimulating breaths.

The authors noted that well-designed studies evaluating the benefits of yoga to treat depression are lacking, despite increased interest in the practice.

The pilot study results suggest the feasibility and promise of Sudarshan Kriya as an add-on intervention for MDD patients who have not responded to antidepressants, the authors wrote.

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