DIFFERENTIAL THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS OF ADD-ON GROUP V/S INDIVIDUAL YOGA THERAPY IN UNIPOLAR DEPRESSION: A SINGLE BLINDED RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED STUDY

OBJECTIVES: Although yoga has efficacy in treating depression, no studies have examined the relative clinical benefits of different modalities of administering yoga (group v/s individual). This has potential impact on the scaling-up of delivering yoga therapy. We aimed to assess the differential efficacy of individual v/s group yoga as an add-on treatment in unipolar depression. METHODS: Thirty-four patients with unipolar depression were randomized to receive 12 sessions of individual (n=18) or group (n=16) yoga. Differential efficacy (HAM-D, HAM-A, CGI-S, N-Back-1 & 2), yoga performance (YPAS) and attrition rates between the two treatment conditions were examined using non-parametric tests. RESULTS: Attrition rates of 33.33% (n=6) and 62.5% (n=10) were found in individual and group yoga respectively (p>0.05). Post intervention, statistically significant improvement in HAM-D, N-Back-2 Hits and Errors were found in both individual (n=12; p<0.05) and group (n=6; p<0.05) yoga. Additionally, significant improvement in HAM-A, CGI-S and N-Back-1 Hits (n=12; p<0.05) was found only in individual, but not in group (n=6; p>0.05) yoga. However, there was no significant interaction effect for any of the outcomes, indicating the magnitude of improvement in individual and group yoga were not significantly different (p<0.05). Yoga performance did not show statistically significant difference (p>0.05) between individual and group sessions. CONCLUSION: We demonstrate that group and individual yoga are equally effective for depression. These observations support the utility of larger dissemination of yoga therapy for depression through group sessions. The findings, however, should be cautiously interpreted due to limited sample size. Running Title: Yoga intervention in unipolar depression