August 31, 2020

Yoga for Anxiety: Surprising Findings

Michelle Riba, M.D., M.S., quoted in this story by Medscape Medical News

Read the entire article on Medscape's website. 

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Michelle Riba, M.D., M.S.

Commenting on the study for Medscape Medical News, Michelle B. Riba, MD, professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan and past president of the American Psychiatric Association, noted that it is important to look at the size of a study's patient population, the type of patient being evaluated, and the length of treatment.

"The devil's always in the details," said Riba, who was not involved with the research. She noted that the current participants were relatively young, mostly white, and mostly employed.

"This was a select group of people, many of whom had been on a psychotropic medication before coming in, so this group wanted to get some help. And even though this type of yoga didn't do as well as CBT, it clearly could be an adjunct or for those who have financial difficulties or don't want formal psychiatric care," she said.

Riba pointed out that this was a small, "well-done pilot study of a very important diagnosis and of evidence-based treatments for it."

Future studies can investigate whether yoga is better at the beginning of treatment for GAD or after CBT has been provided, she noted. The current study "is useful for further research," she added.

"This type of yoga did pretty well in this population of people for a particular range of time. That was a good signal," said Riba.

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