A Review of Randomized Controlled Trial to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Yoga in Controlling Seizures in Patients with Epilepsy

Abstract

Yoga, one of the non-pharmacological therapies for epilepsy, has been believed to be an adjunctive therapy to reduce seizure frequency and duration in adults with epilepsy. The latest review of some studies on that subject was published earlier in 2017, but this reviewed the old studies that were published more than ten years ago. So, it is necessary to update the review to find out how effective yoga is in controlling seizures for epilepsy. This review is made to evaluate the effectiveness of yoga in controlling seizures in adult and children with epilepsy We performed two randomized controlled trial studies selected from PubMed, Cochrane, and Scopus, according to eligibility criteria through PRISMA Flowchart steps. In the intervention group, yoga shows effects that could reduce the frequency and duration of seizures compared to the control group with sham yoga treatment or without any additional treatment. Unfortunately, the detailed characteristics of the participants and the intervention (frequency and duration of yoga) in each study are heterogeneous. A multicentre and well-randomized study that recruits a sufficient number of patients, uses appropriate research methods, and defines explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria is proposed to be conducted. It also will be essential to help reinforce the evidence of yoga's effectiveness as adjunctive therapy in controlling or reducing the frequency and duration of seizures in epilepsy.