Study: Heated yoga associated with decreased depressive symptoms in adults

Key takeaways:

• Symptoms were reduced even though participants attended fewer yoga sessions than expected, a researcher said.
• She added that PCPs may encourage patients, including those on antidepressants, to try heated yoga.

Adults with moderate to severe depression who participated in heated yoga had significantly reduced symptoms compared with those in a control group, according to a randomized controlled trial published in Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

“We were excited to see that the heated yoga worked to reduce depressive symptoms,” Maren B. Nyer, PhD, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, told Healio.

In the 8-week randomized controlled trial, Nyer and colleagues assigned adults with moderate-to-severe depression to either weekly 90-minute yoga sessions in 105°F heat (n = 33) or a waitlist (n = 32). The participants had a mean age of 32 years and 81.5% were women.

Nyer and colleagues analyzed depression outcomes by measuring Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology-Clinician Rated (IDS-CR) scores at baseline and after the intervention.

They found that yoga participants had a greater reduction in the IDS-CR score after the intervention compared with waitlist participants (Cohen d = 1.04).

Additionally, 59.3% of yoga participants responded to treatment — classified as a 50% or greater decrease in IDS-CR score — compared with 6.3% among waitlist participants.

“We had asked participants to go to at least two classes per week. On average, participants went to approximately one class per week, so the dose was lower than we had requested/anticipated needing to get antidepressant effect,” Nyer said. “It appears that a lower dose than anticipated was able to significantly reduce depressive symptoms, which was an encouraging finding.”

According to Nyer, primary care physicians “could encourage individuals both on and off of stable antidepressant regimens (like those studied in this sample) to consider trying a heated yoga class to see if they feel any benefit.”

“Simple depression measures can be given to participants — eg, [Patient Health Questionnaire (PGH)]-9 or PHQ-2 — to monitor their own depressive symptoms over time to track to see if it gets better,” she said.

Nyer added that physicians could also provide interested patients with a sheet detailing hydration and eating recommendations, like not eating a big meal for 2 to 3 hours.

Ultimately, “it is a way to self-manage depressive symptoms that can be used alongside traditional psychotherapy and/or medications or alone (as long as depressive states are disabling, impairing functioning or a safety risk),” she said. “We hope to follow up on this exciting finding in our future work with heat alone and heated yoga.”

References:

• Heated yoga may reduce depression symptoms, according to recent clinical trial. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1005414. Published Oct. 23, 2023. Accessed Oct. 26, 2023.
• Nyer M, et al. J Clin Psychiatry. 2023;doi:10.4088/JCP.22m14621.