Yoga Might Be Just What the Doctor Orders for Anxiety and Depression

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that mental illness, including depression and anxiety, makes up to fifteen percent of disease in the world. Depression and anxiety disorders are often treated with drugs exposing patients to potential side-effects.

Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and McLean Hospital have found that by practicing yoga individuals might be able to elevate GABA (gamma-aminobutyric) levels and thus be a possible treatment for depression and anxiety. Anyone who has practiced yoga knows what a relaxing experience it can be. But the BU researchers have taken it a step further in determining exactly how yoga affects the brain making it far more than just a tool for relaxation.

Using magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging, the researchers compared the GABA levels of eight subjects prior to and after one hour of yoga, with 11 subjects who did no yoga but instead read for one hour. The researchers found a twenty-seven percent increase in GABA levels in the yoga practitioner group after their session, but no change in the comparison subject group after their reading session. The acquisition of the GABA levels was done using a magnetic resonance spectroscopy technique developed by J. Eric Jensen, PhD, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an associate physicist at McLean Hospital.

According to the researchers, yoga has shown promise in improving symptoms associated with depression, anxiety and epilepsy. "Our findings clearly demonstrate that in experienced yoga practitioners, brain GABA levels increase after a session of yoga," said lead author Chris Streeter, MD, an assistant professor of psychiatry and neurology at BUSM and a research associate at McLean Hospital.

"The development of an inexpensive, widely available intervention such as yoga that has no side effects but is effective in alleviating the symptoms of disorders associated with low GABA levels has clear public health advantage," added senior author Perry Renshaw, MD, PhD, director of the Brain Imaging Center at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital.

Source: Press release from Boston University via Eurekalert.

tags: anxiety yoga