Development and Testing of an Audio-Visual Self-Help Yoga Manual for Indian Caregivers of Persons with Schizophrenia Living in the Community: A Single-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND: To test the feasibility and effectiveness of an audio-visual self-help audio-visual yoga manual on burden of Indian caregivers of persons with schizophrenia, living in the community. METHODS: An earlier developed yoga program for caregivers of schizophrenia was remodeled into an audio-visual self-help manual in three languages and validated by mental health and yoga experts. 48 consenting primary family caregivers of outpatients with schizophrenia were screened, recruited, and allotted randomly to Yoga or Care as Usual Group. Participants in Yoga group were taught yoga from the self-help manual (1 session of 1 h every month for 5 months). The caregivers were asked to follow the manual for the remaining month at home. Assessments of burden, perceived stress, quality of life, and anxiety-depression were conducted by a rater blind to the group status at baseline and at the end of every month. RESULTS: Post factoring for missing data, Repeatedmeasure ANOVA was conducted; which showed that there was no significant difference between the group that practiced the selfhelp yoga manual and the care as usual group. The caregivers who practiced yoga at home maintained an average of 50% attendance and “very well” level of yoga performance. CONCLUSION: The audio-visual self-help yoga manual was found to be feasible to use by the caregivers even though its effectiveness could not be ascertained due to high attrition.