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Impact of yoga and physical exercise on psychological wellbeing among substance abusers: a randomized controlled trial

  • Ananda Gaihre , Rajesh Kumar Sasidharan , Suman Bista EMAIL logo , Lisasha Poudel ORCID logo , Rakshya Khadka and Bibek Rajbhandari
Published/Copyright: September 10, 2021
Journal of Complementary and Integrative Medicine
From the journal Journal of Complementary and Integrative Medicine Volume 20 Issue 1

Abstract

Objectives

Substance use disorder is a pattern of recurrent use of illicit substances that leads to severe psychosocial imbalance and recurrent relapse. The study was to evaluate the efficacy of a yoga-based intervention as an add-on in enhancing psychological wellbeing, compared with physical exercise among substance abusers.

Methods

In this randomized controlled study, 96 male participants with substance use disorder from a residential rehabilitation treatment center, Kathmandu, Nepal, were randomly allocated into two groups namely the yoga group (n=48, mean age ± SD=25.18 ± 6.43) and the physical exercise group (n=48, mean age ± SD=25.02 ± 5.02). The participants in the yoga group attended the 90 min yoga sessions for 12 weeks (six days per week) whereas the physical exercise group attended exercise sessions for the same duration. Above mentioned interventions were in addition to standard rehabilitation treatment. The study measured the Self-Control, Anxiety, Depression, Sleep parameters, and Mindfulness at the baseline and after 12 weeks of intervention.

Results

A significant enhancement in self-control was observed in both the yoga (p<0.033, d=0.33) and the exercise group (p<0.038, d=0.32). Yoga group showed significant improvement in mindfulness score (p<0.017, d=0.37), whereas exercise group did not show any significant changes in mindfulness (p<0.169, d=0.21). The depression and anxiety scores reduced significantly in both yoga (p<0.044, d=0.31; p<0.025, d=0.35 resp.) and exercise (p<0.032, d=0.34. p<0.039, d=0.32. resp.) group. Furthermore, significant reduction was seen in sleep disturbance after yoga (p<0.001, d=0.52) and exercise (p<0.001, d=0.78) intervention. The sleep – somnolence score reduced significantly only in yoga group (p<0.020, d=0.36). The magnitude of improvement was higher in the yoga group than physical exercise group on self-control, mindfulness, depression, anxiety and some sleep parameters, however the between group differences could not reach to the level of significance.

Conclusions

The 12 week yoga intervention did not appear to be significantly more effective than the 12 week physical exercise program on psychological wellbeing in male participants with substance use disorder. However, greater improvement in psychological wellbeing was observed within the yoga group. In future, a multi-centric study with robust design, larger sample size and longer follow-up is required to conform the present results and to find out the difference between the impacts of yoga and physical exercise on psychological wellbeing in substance abusers.

Keywords: exercise; mindfulness; self-control; sleep; substance abuse; yoga
Corresponding author: Suman Bista, PhD Scholar Yoga Science, Junior Research Fellow, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, India, E-mail:

  1. Research funding: None declared.

  2. Author contributions: All the authors have contributed to the research study (recruitment, intervention, assessments, or analysis). All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  3. Competing interests: There is no conflict between authors. The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design, recruitment, intervention, assessments and analysis, report writing or the decision to submit the report for publication.

  4. Informed consent: Signed informed consent was obtained from each individual before recruitment. The voluntary nature of participation in the study was explained to the participants.

  5. Ethical approval: The study was reviewed and approved by the Nepal Health Research Council Kathmandu, Nepal (Reg. No: 95/2016).

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Supplementary Material

The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/jcim-2020-0506).

Received: 2020-12-02
Accepted: 2021-08-29
Published Online: 2021-09-10

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/jcim-2020-0506
Keywords for this article
exercise; mindfulness; self-control; sleep; substance abuse; yoga

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Reviews
  3. Does acupuncture improve sexual dysfunction? A systematic review
  4. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease – discussed under the light of Unani medicine
  5. Phytochemistry and pharmacology of Celastrus paniculatus Wild.: a nootropic drug
  6. Low back pain patients’ perceived effectiveness of utilizing complementary and alternative medicine: a systematic review of qualitative studies
  7. Efficacy and tolerability of Lavandula angustifolia in treating patients with the diagnosis of depression: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials
  8. Research Articles
  9. Psychobiotic interventions attenuate chronic alcohol use-mediated exacerbation of posttraumatic stress disorder in rats: the role of gut-liver axis response
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