Review
Version 1
Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Biomarkers of Response to Adjunctive Yoga-Based Interventions in Depression: A Scoping Review
Version 1
: Received: 4 March 2024 / Approved: 4 March 2024 / Online: 4 March 2024 (15:54:26 CET)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Rajkumar, R.P. Are There Biological Correlates of Response to Yoga-Based Interventions in Depression? A Critical Scoping Review. Brain Sci. 2024, 14, 543. Rajkumar, R.P. Are There Biological Correlates of Response to Yoga-Based Interventions in Depression? A Critical Scoping Review. Brain Sci. 2024, 14, 543.
Abstract
Depression is the commonest mental disorder worldwide. Both antidepressants and psychotherapy are effective in treating depression, but response to these treatments is often incomplete. Yoga-based interventions (YBIs) have emerged as a promising adjunctive treatment for depression. Recent research has attempted to identify the biological mechanisms associated with the antidepressant actions of YBIs. In this scoping review, conducted according to the PRISMA-ScR guidelines, the PubMed and Scopus databases were searched to retrieve research on biomarkers of response to YBIs in patients with depression. Eleven studies were included in the review. Based on these studies, YBIs may improve depression through beneficial effects on systemic inflammation, stress axis regulation, cardiac autonomic functioning, and possibly reductions in oxidative stress-related cellular damage. Increases in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) may represent a final common pathway upon which these processes converge. Though these results are theoretically plausible, they should be interpreted with caution due to certain methodological limitations in the existing research. Replication of these results and improvements in study methodology, and the evaluation of other biomarkers relevant to the pathophysiology of depression, could further elucidate the mechanism of action of YBIs in this disorder, and identify which patients would benefit most from this treatment approach.
Keywords
major depressive disorder; yoga; adjunctive treatment; hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis; heart rate variability; interleukin-6; brain-derived neurotrophic factor
Subject
Medicine and Pharmacology, Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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