Yoga for Psychological Rehabilitation: An Overview

The psychological changes associated with yoga practice, allow yoga to be used in therapy and rehabilitation. In the present overview only the psychological aspects of rehabilitation have discussed. Applications have been reported in children with attention deficit hyperactive disorder as an add-on therapy, particularly towards evening when the effects of medication reduce. Another recent application is in promotion of healthy aging. Healthy older persons who practiced yoga had improved sleep, better gait and balance, and less chance of depression, compared to those who did not practice yoga. In mentally challenged persons yoga showed better motor coordination, general mental ability, social adjustment and improved central neural processing ability. Another application of yoga which has been studied is posttraumatic stress disorder for survivors of natural disasters, with studies cited about benefits observed in survivors of a tsunami and a flood. Apart from this, yoga therapy resulted in improved perceived quality of life in physical and psychological domains as well as improved postural stability in patients with schizophrenia. The evidence showed that yoga plays an important role to overcome drug addiction at both pre and post clinical stages and it helps individuals to decrease drug dependency and other associated problems. More recent studies have made it apparent that there is no evidence that yoga is beneficial for persons who are HIV positive or those with AIDS. Hence it is apparent that there are several diverse applications of yoga in rehabilitation. Considerable research is still required to verify claims made and understand mechanisms underlying benefits seen.