Evidence-Based Clinical Application of Yoga for Stress Management

Abstract

A recent systematic review reports the effects of yoga on stress reduction. It inspires mental health professionals on the application of yoga for stress management in clinical practice [1]. Indeed, the causes of stress are multi-factorial and so are the management strategies [2]. This makes the consideration of various intervention modalities necessary. One should be open-minded enough to the potential application of pharmacological treatment and non-pharmacological treatment. In the authors’ clinical practices, it is not uncommon to find that medical professionals (including doctors and nurses) tend to mainly focus on biological mechanisms of interventions and sometimes neglect or even ignore the psychological basis. The reverse is true for non-medical personnel (such as social workers). In fact, while the main parameters of pharmacological treatment are physiological, it does not mean that physiological parameters do not exist in nonpharmacological treatment. Yoga is a good example which yields positive effects in both physiological and psychological aspects. A stress-diathesis model can be used to illustrate the interaction between these two aspects [3]. In this model, the diathesis (physiological predisposition) interacts with stressors (e.g. life events) to trigger psychological disorders such as depression. The greater the diathesis, the less stress is needed to trigger the disorder. Stress is thus well regarded as a determining factor which precipitates the illness and probably perpetuates it. In this regard, stress reduction is a crucial key to managing the illness. The findings of the systematic review highlight that practicing yoga yields psychological effects by empowering self-management of stress, and biological effects by better regulating the sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamicpituitary-adrenal system [1].