Alternative Therapy: Yoga, The Ancient Technique in Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Kyle J. Norton 


Epidemiological studies suggested that yoga intervention may improve psychological and physical aspects in patients diagnosed with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychological condition triggered by terrifically experienced or witnessed events.

Yoga, the ancient  practical technique for harmonized external and internal body well beings, through breath control, meditation, bodily movement and gesture..... has been well known for people in Western world and some parts in Asia due to health benefits reported by various respectable institutes' research and supported by health advocates.

In the concern of 10 million women with histories of interpersonal violence in the United States who have developed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), researchers at the Trauma Center at Justice Resource Institute, conducted a study included Sixty-four women with chronic, treatment-resistant PTSD randomly assigned to either trauma-informed yoga or supportive women's health education,  with a weekly 1-hour class for 10 weeks, at the end of experiment indicated that yoga program expressed a significantly improved the syndrome, causing 16/ 31 participants no longer met criteria for PTSD in compared to 6 of 29 (21%) in the control group, linearly to the length of participation of the class of yoga in the trend of syndrome improvement.

According to the measurement of the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), yoga group expressed a better outcome in exhibited significantly decrease complications related to affect and impulse regulation.

In fact, yoga exercise, using deep relaxation and meditation to create a state of consciousness in the present moment and increased the ability to maintain or positive feelings to minimize or regulate stress feelings and defensive states.

Although, the achievement of mind calmness and induced dramatization to individual with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in  perform mediation may be difficult during the early state of treatment, instruction and guidance of yoga breathing was shown to gradually improved the individual attention of bodily sensations in modulation of autonomic arousal, and decreased cognitive patterns of distraction.

More importantly, Dr. van der Kolk BA, the led author said, " both groups exhibited significant decreases in PTSD symptoms during the first half of treatment, but these improvements were maintained in the yoga group, while the control group relapsed after its initial improvement" and " Yoga may improve the functioning of traumatized individuals by helping them to tolerate physical and sensory experiences associated with fear and helplessness and to increase emotional awareness and affect tolerance".

Additionally, yoga breathing and mindfulness practices also improved attention on sensory experiences and  physical sensations, including body tension, rapid heartbeat, and short, shallow breath in triggerring emotional response in a positive way.

Some researchers suggested that yoga postures not only help PTSD to gain awareness of body and its strength, feeling calm and control of thoughts, but also overcome the bad experiences of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) life through expression of a friendly relationship with the body in confront internal sensations.

Interestingly, the investigation of the effect of yoga intervention on alcohol and drug abuse behaviors in women with PTSD,using data from a pilot randomized controlled trial by comparing a 12-session yoga practice with an assessment control for women age 18 to 65 years, measured by Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) and Drug Use Disorder Identification Test (DUDIT), showed that yoga group expressed a mean AUDIT and DUDIT scores decreased a reduction in symptoms and improvement of symptom management in yoga group in compared to control.

Amazingly, yoga participants after the experiment also expressed interest in psychotherapy for PTSD.

The efficacy of yoga intervention in recovering addicts was attributed to the relaxation and mindfulness intervention in induction of calmness of the body and mind to enhanced experience feelings of peace and comfort to deal with increased addictive temptation and to cop and tolerate the uncomfortable feelings and sensations that can lead to reinstatement of drug-seeking behavior.

The finding evidences suggested that yoga intervention can be used as an integrated form of practice to attenuate the symptoms of PTSD, through improving psychological and physical aspects in related to risk of alcohol and drug addiction and an adjunct therapy used together with the primary treatment in treatment of patients with post traumatic stress disorder.

For More information of yoga lessons tailor to a complete well being for women, please visit: YOGA BURN

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrients, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published on line, including world wide health, ezine articles, article base, healthblogs, selfgrowth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bio science, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Yoga as an adjunctive treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder: a randomized controlled trial by van der Kolk BA1, Stone L, West J, Rhodes A, Emerson D, Suvak M, Spinazzola J.(PubMed)
(2) The effect of a yoga intervention on alcohol and drug abuse risk in veteran and civilian women with posttraumatic stress disorder by Reddy S1, Dick AM, Gerber MR, Mitchell K.(PubMed)
(3) Yoga as an Adjunctive Treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial by Bessel A. van der Kolk, MD; Laura Stone, MA; Jennifer West, PhD; Alison Rhodes, MSW Med; David Emerson, MA; Michael Suvak, PhD; and Joseph Spinazzola, PhD(Original Research)