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Cortisol and antidepressant effects of yoga
CONTEXT: Hypercortisolemia is well-known in depression and yoga has been demonstrated earlier to reduce the parameters of stress, including cortisol levels. AIM: We aimed to find the role of yoga as an antidepressant as well as its action on lowering the serum cortisol levels. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd
2013
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3768222/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24049209 http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.116315 |
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author | Thirthalli, J. Naveen, G. H. Rao, M. G. Varambally, S. Christopher, R. Gangadhar, B. N. |
author_facet | Thirthalli, J. Naveen, G. H. Rao, M. G. Varambally, S. Christopher, R. Gangadhar, B. N. |
author_sort | Thirthalli, J. |
collection | PubMed |
description | CONTEXT: Hypercortisolemia is well-known in depression and yoga has been demonstrated earlier to reduce the parameters of stress, including cortisol levels. AIM: We aimed to find the role of yoga as an antidepressant as well as its action on lowering the serum cortisol levels. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: An open-labeled study consisting of three groups (yoga alone, yoga along with antidepressant medication and antidepressant medication alone) was conducted at a tertiary care psychiatry hospital. METHODOLOGY: Out-patient depressives who were not suicidal were offered yoga as a possible antidepressant therapy. A validated yoga module was used as therapy taught over a month and to be practiced at home daily. Patients were free to choose the drugs if their psychiatrist advised. Patients (n=54) were rated on Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) with serum cortisol measurements at baseline and after 3 months. In 54 patients, assessments and blood test results were both available. 19 each received yoga alone or with drugs and 16 received drugs only. Healthy comparison subjects (n=18) too underwent morning cortisol measurements once. RESULTS: Serum cortisol was higher in depressives compared with controls. In the total sample, the cortisol level dropped significantly at the end of treatment. More patients in the yoga groups had a drop in cortisol levels as compared to drug-only group. In the yoga-only group, the cortisol drop correlated with the drop in HDRS score (antidepressant effect). CONCLUSION: The findings support that yoga may act at the level of the hypothalamus by its ‘anti-stress’ effects (reducing the cortisol), to bring about relief in depression. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3768222 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-37682222013-09-18 Cortisol and antidepressant effects of yoga Thirthalli, J. Naveen, G. H. Rao, M. G. Varambally, S. Christopher, R. Gangadhar, B. N. Indian J Psychiatry Original Article CONTEXT: Hypercortisolemia is well-known in depression and yoga has been demonstrated earlier to reduce the parameters of stress, including cortisol levels. AIM: We aimed to find the role of yoga as an antidepressant as well as its action on lowering the serum cortisol levels. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: An open-labeled study consisting of three groups (yoga alone, yoga along with antidepressant medication and antidepressant medication alone) was conducted at a tertiary care psychiatry hospital. METHODOLOGY: Out-patient depressives who were not suicidal were offered yoga as a possible antidepressant therapy. A validated yoga module was used as therapy taught over a month and to be practiced at home daily. Patients were free to choose the drugs if their psychiatrist advised. Patients (n=54) were rated on Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) with serum cortisol measurements at baseline and after 3 months. In 54 patients, assessments and blood test results were both available. 19 each received yoga alone or with drugs and 16 received drugs only. Healthy comparison subjects (n=18) too underwent morning cortisol measurements once. RESULTS: Serum cortisol was higher in depressives compared with controls. In the total sample, the cortisol level dropped significantly at the end of treatment. More patients in the yoga groups had a drop in cortisol levels as compared to drug-only group. In the yoga-only group, the cortisol drop correlated with the drop in HDRS score (antidepressant effect). CONCLUSION: The findings support that yoga may act at the level of the hypothalamus by its ‘anti-stress’ effects (reducing the cortisol), to bring about relief in depression. Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd 2013-07 /pmc/articles/PMC3768222/ /pubmed/24049209 http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.116315 Text en Copyright: © Indian Journal of Psychiatry http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Original Article Thirthalli, J. Naveen, G. H. Rao, M. G. Varambally, S. Christopher, R. Gangadhar, B. N. Cortisol and antidepressant effects of yoga |
title | Cortisol and antidepressant effects of yoga |
title_full | Cortisol and antidepressant effects of yoga |
title_fullStr | Cortisol and antidepressant effects of yoga |
title_full_unstemmed | Cortisol and antidepressant effects of yoga |
title_short | Cortisol and antidepressant effects of yoga |
title_sort | cortisol and antidepressant effects of yoga |
topic | Original Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3768222/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24049209 http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.116315 |
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