Byline: M. Reddy, Starlin. Vijay What Do Psychiatrists Mean When They Talk About Yoga? Yoga is an ancient Indian practice with a particular worldview and psychology. Because of its indigenous and ancient character, yoga has perennially evoked interest in the minds of intellectual Indian researchers and physicians. Over the last century, it has captured the interest of the Western world and has garnered millions of followers across all nations. Since June 2015, the world community has even started celebrating the International Yoga Day. In the backdrop, with such an interest, we will discuss the available research and its implications for the practice of psychiatry in the 21[sup]st century. When health-care professionals talk about yoga, they usually discuss either its usefulness as a lifestyle intervention or as a potential treatment for physical and psychological problems. The health-care community, particularly mental health community, is currently interested in the physical exercises (Hatha Yoga or Pranayama ) and few ill-defined meditative practices (such as Dhyana in Mantra Yoga). Hence, the focus is less on the mystical-spiritual aspects of yoga and more on the measurable/interventional and physical-psychological aspects (this specific narrower aspect will be called as “Yoga therapy” in this article to differentiate it from the broader wholesome term – which is merely called - yoga). Recent research in psychiatry has been in search of the empirical evidence for the usefulness of yoga therapy as complimentary or solitary therapeutic agent in psychiatric treatment. A Brief Conceptual History of Yoga The practice of yoga might have been present long before it was systematized by Patanjali in his book, Yoga Sutras, which have aphorisms on yoga. Whatever evidence is available suggests that he lived around 100 BC. His yogic system borrows many ideas and concepts from Kapila's S?m.khya School of Philosophy.[sup][1] Yoga is a Sanskrit word for union. Patanjali practically defines yoga as the final annihilation ( Nirodha ) of all the mental states ( Cittav?tti ) through progressive stages to attain a steadied mind with particular types of graduated mental states.[sup][2] The ultimate goal as described by Patanjali is the attainment of a particular spiritual mind state which is variably called Moksha and Satcit?nanda (which can be translated as salvation or union with ultimate reality). Over centuries, many systems of yoga have been developed. The prominent ones which now exist are Hatha yoga, Mantra or Japa yoga, Surat-Shabd yoga (also known as Nam Bhakti ), Kundalini yoga, Tantra yoga (popularized by Bhagawan Rajneesh/Osho), etc., Out of these, Hatha yoga is the most popular kind in our day which has its emphasis on physical exercises or asanas, while Kundalini yoga with its Pranayama and Mantra yoga with its Dhyana are also well practiced and popular. The particular practices such as asanas, Dhyana and Pranayama of these three prominent schools have claimed specific physical and psychological health benefits.[sup][3] Review of Literature There is a lot of research literature on yoga as a therapy for physical and psychological problems. We will discuss few relevant individual studies and reviews on yoga therapy in psychiatric disorders. Anxiety and depression There are many studies [sup][4],[5],[6] showing improvement in anxiety and depressive symptoms (level 3 evidence [sup][7]) which is attributable to yoga therapy, this was similar to improvement due to physical exercise. Most studies might have been done on people with mild-to-moderate anxiety or depression. Very few studies done on melancholic depression have found inferiority to electroconvulsive therapy, but not to drug treatment.[sup][8] Hence, yoga therapy may be used as an add-on treatment in this population. Eating disorders Available studies [sup][9],[10] suggest that yoga therapy is useful in anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. …