Maren Nayer is the director of the Yoga Study in the Depression Clinical and Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
“We are currently developing new studies with the goal of determining the specific contribution of each element – heat and yoga – to the clinical effects seen in depression,” Nyer said.
The participants rated the hot yoga sessions positively, and they experienced no serious adverse effects associated with the intervention.
“Future research is needed to compare heated yoga for depression with unheated yoga to determine whether there are benefits of heat in addition to yoga for the treatment of depression, especially major depressive disorder.” “There is promising evidence for whole body hyperthermia as a treatment for the disorder,” says. Senior author David Mischaulon, MD, PhD, director of the Depression Clinical and Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital.