Discussion
|
Recapitulation of the Results
|
Self rated indicators of distress (namely fear, anxiety, sadness and disturbed sleep) decreased significantly in all participants after a 1 week yoga camp for tsunami survivors. This was seen for both EP and ML. Also, the breath rate decreased significantly in both groups after yoga.
|
Use of Yoga for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Related Conditions
|
A yoga breathing technique has been used as a public health intervention for survivors of mass disasters, to alleviate post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (11). Apart from this report on the use of yoga breathing for PTSD, yoga practices have been shown to reduce symptoms of emotional distress in different populations. For example, Kundalini yoga (KY) meditation was shown to reduce fear in patients with cancer (12). Yoga practice has also been shown to decrease the time taken to fall asleep, increase the total number of hours slept and the feeling of being rested in the morning, in older persons (13). Improved sleep efficiency, total sleep time, decreased sleep onset latency and reduced wake time after sleep onset in persons with chronic insomnia were reported following yoga practice (14).
|
The Basis for the Present Findings
|
These effects of practicing yoga may explain the benefits of the yoga program in the tsunami survivors reported here. The marginally greater decrease in fear, anxiety, sleep disturbances and sadness in the EP as compared with the MS may be related to differences in the sample sizes of the groups as well as their coping strategies, previous traumatization, education and individual vulnerability. However, of greater importance than the difference between groups (which was not statistically significant) is the fact that both groups showed a significant decrease in symptoms of distress following 7 days of yoga training. However, the fact that the
|
Table 1. Self-rated indicators of distress and autonomic and respiratory variables in tsunami survivors after a week of yoga
#P50.05, one tailed, *P50.05; ***P50.001 t-test for paired data, two tailed.
|
|
VAS were used rather than validated questionnaires is a limitation of the study. A decrease in heart rate and breath rate following yoga training has been reported in normal volunteers (15) and in those who have increased psycho-physiological arousal due to their social circumstances, namely. adolescent girls in a remand home (16). The breath rate reduced following 3 weeks of yoga in children with impaired vision (17). The decrease in breath rate in the present study following yoga may be associated with a decrease in psycho- physiologic arousal (18) though no correlation was found between these variables and the self rated fear and anxiety.
|
Summary
|
The present results suggest the use of yoga to reduce stress and derive psycho-physiological benefits in survi- vors of a major natural disaster. However, given the fact that the study was conducted in a field setting it was not possible to have conventional controls, which is a definite limitation of the study.
|
