By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“What yoga has to offer people who are dying is acceptance, not just of death, but also of all the difficult feelings that come with it.” – Molly Kenny
Depression is very common in the elderly. The elderly cope with increasing loss of friends and family, deteriorating health, as well as concerns regarding finances on fixed incomes. All of these are legitimate sources of worry. But, no matter how reasonable, the increased worry and anxiety add extra stress that can impact on the elderly’s already deteriorating physical and psychological health. For those nearing the endo of life, emotions become amplified. The knowledge that death is imminent—and the awareness that it is unavoidable—understandably brings intense anxiety and fear. For the elderly in hospice care these issues become amplified. So, clearly ameliorating the depression and anxiety could be highly beneficial to the well-being of the elderly in general and especially those in hospice care.
Yoga practice has been shown to have a myriad of psychological and physical health benefits. These include relief of anxiety and depression and yoga has been shown to be safe and effective when applied to the elderly. So, it would seem reasonable to assess the effectiveness of yoga practice for the anxiety and depression present in the elderly in hospice care. In today’s Research News article “Effect of a 12-week yoga therapy program on mental health status in elderly women inmates of a hospice.” See:
or see summary below or view the full text of the study at:
Ramanathan and colleagues recruited elderly women in hospice care and randomly assigned them to either a wait-list control group or a yoga practice group. The yoga practice was especially designed for the frail elderly and was carried out in the hospice in a group for 60 min, twice weekly for a period of 12 weeks. The practice included a simple warm-up, breath-body movement coordination practices, static stretching postures, breathing techniques, and relaxation. Before and after the 12-week practice the patients completed self-report measures of anxiety, depression, and self-esteem.
They found that the yoga practice produced a significant improvement in the women’s well-being. In particular there was a significant decrease in psychological and somatic anxiety and depression and an increase in self-esteem in the yoga group in comparison to the control group. These are exciting results and indicate that yoga practice is a safe and effective treatment for the anxiety, depression, and self-esteem of women in hospice. This suggests that yoga practice reduces the psychological suffering near the end of life. The increases in self-esteem were particularly large and striking, suggesting that engaging in yoga markedly improved how the women felt about themselves.
It should be mentioned that there was not an active control group. So, there is no way of determining if any light exercise could produce similar improvements or if the benefits accrue solely to those engaged in yoga practice. Yoga practice has been shown to decrease aging and improve longevity in older people. An interesting question for future research is to determine if yoga practice might improve longevity in women in hospice. Regardless, reduce anxiety and depression in hospice with yoga.
“Yoga is about bringing peace of mind and acceptance through breath and movement. Hospice is about comfort and support at the end of life. Even when a patient cannot stand or get out of bed, small movements and special breathing techniques can lead to deeper relaxation.” – Sara Culan
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
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Study Summary
Ramanathan M, Bhavanani AB, Trakroo M. Effect of a 12-week yoga therapy program on mental health status in elderly women inmates of a hospice. Int J Yoga [serial online] 2017 [cited 2016 Nov 23];10:24-8. Available from: http://www.ijoy.org.in/text.asp?2017/10/1/24/186156
Aim and Objectives: This study was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of yoga on the mental health status of elderly women inmates residing in a hospice in Puducherry.
Materials and Methods: Forty elderly women were randomly divided into yoga and wait-listed control group. A yoga therapy program of 60 min was given twice a week for 12 weeks. This protocol was specially designed for senior citizens, keeping in mind their health status and physical limitations that included simple warm-up and breath-body movement coordination practices (jathis and kriyas), static stretching postures (asanas), breathing techniques (pranayamas), and relaxation. Hamilton anxiety scale for measuring anxiety, Hamilton rating scale for depression, and Rosenberg self-esteem scale to measure self-esteem were administered to both groups before and after the 12-week study period. Data were assessed for normality, and appropriate parametric and nonparametric statistical methods were applied for intra- and inter-group comparisons.
Results: Overall, intra- and inter-group comparison of prepost data showed statistically significant (P < 0.001) differences for all three parameters. There was an overall improvement in the scores indicating decreased levels of depression and anxiety coupled with an increase in the level of self-esteem after the yoga therapy program.
Discussion: The influence of yoga in the reduction of depression and anxiety scores and improvement in self-esteem scores in elderly women subjects is evident from this study. As reported in earlier studies, this may be attributed to changes in central neurotransmitters such as gamma-aminobutyric-acid coupled with increased parasympathetic tone and decreased sympatho-adrenal activity.
Conclusion: It is recommended that yoga should be a part of health-care facilities for elderly as it can enhance the quality of life by improving their overall mental health status. It could provide a healthy and positive alternative from depressing negative thoughts, and give them a sense of purpose and hope.