DR. SITAKANT GHANEKAR
Yog Mandir, Goa

Click Play button to Play Audio
(Please wait as the audio loads)

Abstract

Common Mental Disorders (CMD) like depression and anxiety are stress related problems that are both highly prevalent and disabling making them an important public health problem. Though it has been recommended that these disorders are best treated in primary care settings, there is little evidence from developing countries about the feasibility and effectiveness of such services. The MANAS program in Goa is a randomized trial to evaluate the clinical and cost effectiveness of integrating a coordinated intervention for CMD in both public and private sector clinics. The program consists of a variety of evidence based treatments that are delivered to subjects with CMD by trained counselors. One of the key treatments within the intervention package is yoga which is offered to all subjects who are diagnosed with CMD. In this presentation, we discuss the development of the package of yoga techniques, their piloting in selected clinical settings and the subsequent adaptation of the yoga module for the trial within the overall MANAS intervention. We conclude that yoga for stress related problems like CMD are both feasible and acceptable and that providing yoga in primary care settings presents an opportunity to place yoga within the mainstream of clinical practice that can be mutually beneficial.