Yoga as an Adjunctive Treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Bessel A. van der Kolk, MD; Laura Stone, MA; Jennifer West, PhD; Alison Rhodes, MSW Med; David Emerson, MA; Michael Suvak, PhD; and Joseph Spinazzola, PhD

“Thus, both groups exhibited significant decreases in PTSD symptoms during the first half of treatment, but these improvements were maintained in the yoga group, while the control group relapsed after its initial improvement”

“Yoga significantly reduced PTSD symptomatology, with effect sizes comparable to well-researched psychotherapeutic

and psychopharmacologic approaches. Yoga may improve the functioning of traumatized individuals by helping them to

tolerate physical and sensory experiences associated with fear and helplessness and to increase emotional awareness and affect

tolerance.

Effects of One-to-One Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga Sessions on Psychological Symptoms and Interoception over 6 Months

Kelsey M. Dietrich, MA, RYT-500,1 Nicole M. Strumbel,1 Viann N. Nguyen-Feng, PhD, MPH, RYT-5001

Linear mixed-model analyses found that anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress symptoms, attention regulation, self-regulation, and body listening significantly improved over time.

“Somatic trauma care, or a “bottom-up” approach to trauma care, emphasizes the role of the body as a resource for healing. A meta-analysis of 15 studies of stand-alone somatic interventions for trauma care found significant improvements postintervention for posttraumatic stress symptoms, with a large effect size. Yoga was the most common somatic intervention studied in a systematic review of 84 studies for somatic trauma care.”

“ Randomized controlled trials have demonstrated that TCTSY significantly improves posttraumatic stress and depression, with large effect sizes. A single-group study of women with chronic PTSD found significant clinical reductions in PTSD symptoms and dissociation 2 months postintervention. In one randomized clinical trial, completion rates of TCTSY were significantly higher than for the comparison group of cognitive processing therapy”