Yoga therapy, a novel treatment option for somatoform disorders: a case study

Background: Somatoform disorders are common mental disorders in health settings. Treatment of these disorders are challenging despite availability of variety of options as the efficacy of these treatments is variable. Yoga has been considered as a treatment modality for common mental disorders like anxiety and depression however the use of yoga in treatment of somatoform disorders is limited. Objective: Yoga therapy as a potential treatment option for somatoform disorders. Case report: Mr Z, 30 year old Muslim gentleman, married, manual labourer by occupation presented with 3 years illness of insidious onset, continuous course characterised by pain in the back, chest, pain in extremities, wrist joint, knee joint, ankle along with spells of headache. These symptoms were associated with gastric dyspepsia and mild sexual dysfunction. Moderate to severe biological and socio-occupational dysfunction was noted. A poor response to conventional analgesics, ayurvedic and herbal remedies was noted in the past. Yoga therapy was offered as a treatment modality and was accepted by the patient. Trial of yoga therapy was provided to him after written informed consent. Methods: A comprehensive yoga module consisting of Asana, Pranayama and Dhyana was incorporated in yoga therapy for him. Seven days training followed by home based practice of yoga was advised for 12 weeks. Visual analogue scale (VAS), Brief pain inventory (BPI), Hamilton anxiety rating scale (HAM-A) and Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) were used for assessment. Analysis was done at the baseline, 2, 6 and 12 weeks prospectively. Results: Patient improved completely at the end of 6 weeks and improvement was sustained till 12 weeks. There was significant reduction in VAS, BPI, HAM-A and PSQI scores at the end of 6 and 12 weeks. Conclusion: Yoga therapy can be a potential treatment option among the complementary medicine. It has a great potential of being a sole treatment as well as an add on procedure. It has been tried successfully in fibromyalgia, low back pain and arthritis in the past but not in somatoform disorders. More studies are needed to prove the efficacy of yoga therapy in somatoform disorders.