Sahaja yoga in the management of moderate to severe asthma: a randomised controlled trial. Thorax 2002: 57: 110-115. Full text of the article used may be found at: http://thorax.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/57/2/110

Manuscript Summary

Asthmatic patients are often treated with psychological interventions. One method of nontraditional treatment, Sahaja yoga, is a form of meditation that is believed to yield therapeutic benefits. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of Sahaja yoga in the adjunctive management of adult asthmatics in whom inhaled steroids did not fully alleviate symptoms.

The study design was a parallel group, double-blind, randomized, controlled trial. Subjects were adult asthmatics in which moderate to high doses of inhales steroids did not completely alleviate symptoms. Subjects were randomized to Sahaja yoga or a control intervention group. The control group underwent relaxation...

Subjects in both groups attended 2-hour sessions once a week for 4 months. Outcome measurements were measured at the end of the intervention period and 2 months after the end of the intervention. Study outcomes included self-reported symptoms, medication use, quality of life and mood assessments, and spirometric function.
Results showed that the practice of Sahaja yoga had limited benefit in the adjunctive treatment of adult asthmatics. Level of airway hyperresponsiveness to mechacholine improved 1.5 doubling doses greater in the treatment group vs. The control group. Subjective mood, quality of life, and symptom scores did not improve in the test vs. The control group. Overall, more research in this field is required to clarify the mechanism of the effects of Sahaja yoga in the treatment of adult asthmatics.

Manuscript Critique

The design of this study was strong. Randomized controlled…