SYMPOSIA Friday, May 26, 3:15-4:45
Yoga as a Therapeutic Intervention
Speakers: Sat Bir S Khalsa, PhD, Bradly Jacobs, MD, MPH,
Kavita Chandwani, MD, MPH, Jost Langhorst, MD
The practice of yoga has become very popular
in the west and surveys consistently indicate that this popularity is
on the increase. Although yoga is historically a spiritual discipline,
it has also more recently been used clinically as a therapeutic intervention.
In fact, there are now numerous books on the topic of yoga treatment
for various disorders as well as training programs for "yoga therapy"
and an association and journal for yoga therapy. Accordingly numerous
survey studies have indicated that yoga, including related techniques
such as meditation and breathing techniques, is used by a relatively
large percentage of the population using alternative therapies. The
use of yoga as therapeutic intervention falls within the broad category
of mind-body medicine, and is considered as an eligible topic for research
funding by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
of the National Institutes of health.
Accordingly, it is not surprising that there
has been research conducted on the therapeutic application of yoga.
A bibliometric analysis on the biomedical journal literature involving
research on the clinical application of yoga has revealed an increase
in publication frequency over the past 3 decades with a substantial
and growing use of randomized controlled trials. Types of medical conditions
in these studies have included psychopathological (e.g. depression,
anxiety), cardiovascular (e.g. hypertension, heart disease), respiratory
(e.g. asthma), diabetes and a variety of others. A majority of this
research has been conducted by Indian investigators and published in
Indian journals, particularly yoga specialty journals, although recent
trends indicate increasing contributions from investigators in the U.S.
and England.
This symposium will provide an overview of the
history, breadth and quality of this research and will include presenters
who are actively engaged in research on yoga as a therapeutic intervention
to provide a sense of the nature, direction and specific challenges
of this line of scientific investigation.