The Use of Integrative Medical Services to Address Psychological Concerns around Infertility in an Indian Academic Medical Centre

BACKGROUND: Alternative and complementary therapies have been gaining popularity as ways to reduce anxiety in patients. AIM: This study aimed to assess whether yoga and meditation could decrease the severity of anxiety in Indian women diagnosed with infertility Study. STUDY SETTING AND DESIGN: This was a retrospective data analysis of anxiety score of 354 women undergoing treatment at a tertiary infertility hospital between January 2016 and December 2018. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Women participated in group yoga, meditation and counselling therapy intervention during their treatment period. A self-reported questionnaire that used the Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7 criteria measured the participants’ severity of anxiety at the start of and again at the end of the intervention. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Demographic analysis and a two-tailed paired t-test were applied between groups. RESULTS: The results indicated that there was a statistically significant mean reduction (7.3 ± 2.7) in the anxiety scores of the participants between entry (12.94 ± 2.65) and following exposure (5.39 ± 1.99) to the intervention (P < 0.0001). The mean reduction in scores remained similar between participants who received ≤6 sessions (7.50 ± 2.68) and participants who received >6 sessions (7.10 ± 2.64) (P > 0.05). Among the participants that experienced mild anxiety at baseline (n = 43), 72.1% (n = 31) reported experiencing minimal anxiety following the intervention (P < 0.0001). Among those that experienced moderate anxiety at baseline (n = 213), 32.4% (n = 69) reported experiencing minimal anxiety post-intervention (P < 0.0001). Participants who expressed severe anxiety at baseline (n = 94, 26.6%), reported experiencing minimal anxiety (13.8% [n = 13)], mild anxiety (81.9% [n = 77]) and moderate anxiety (4.3% [n = 4]) after exposure to the intervention (P < 0.0001). None of the participants reported experiencing severe anxiety post-intervention. CONCLUSION: The benefits of alternative anxiety-reduction therapies for women diagnosed with infertility have been demonstrated in this study. These therapies can be used to complement the routine treatment of such patients.