A Manualized Yoga Intervention for Adolescents with Co-Occurring Physical and Psychiatric Conditions Shows Improvements in Mental and Physical Health

Marianne Z Wamboldt

doi:10.19080/jyp.2019.06.555698

Abstract

A Manualized Yoga Intervention for Adolescents with Co-Occurring Physical and Psychiatric Conditions Shows Improvements in Mental and Physical Health

Highlights

This work was done in a children’s hospital setting, where there are numerous youth who suffer from both medical and comorbid psychiatric conditions
The MBSR curriculum was modified: 1) to utilize language and concepts appropriate to adolescents, and 2) to be guided by Hatha Yoga concepts. Speaking, this led to an intervention with yoga poses and sequences that we identified were beneficial to teens in our pilot study, use of yoga Indra rather than a “body scan” for guided relaxation, a wider variety of pranayama and more active and guided meditation practices to retain adolescent attention
Hypothesis 1 proposed that greater than 50% of the enrolled participants would complete 20 hours of yoga classes, by attending all eight, 2.5-hour long sessions

Summary

Introduction

This work was done in a children’s hospital setting, where there are numerous youth who suffer from both medical and comorbid psychiatric conditions These patients are often difficult to treat in western medicine settings, which tend to separate medical care from mental health care. In a meta-analysis Ross and Thomas [4] reviewed 81 studies and found “a growing body of evidence supports the belief that yoga benefits physical and mental health via downregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS).”. For these reasons, in our clinical practice we have often recommended yoga to youth with chronic pain concerns, anxiety or mood problems.

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion