Yoga and Meditation for PTSD Sufferers

Military veterans with PTSD turn to yoga and meditation

The Australian Defence Force is grappling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among troops, and personnel are calling for better access to emerging therapies like yoga and meditation.

Wing Commander Nick Dyce-McGowan had undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder after running air traffic control in Iraq in 2004.

"I'd been in a foul mood for about 10 years," he said.

"I was just angry for no apparent reason and snappy and I isolated myself from friends and family."

Wing Commander Dyce-McGowan was seeing a psychologist privately and working with military medical staff.

He turned a corner in his treatment after trying a meditation technique developed for troops in the United States.

"I was initially quite reluctant about the whole thing," he said.

"But I gave it a shot because nothing else was working. My wife noticed a positive change after the first session.

"I think it's the self-regulation aspect. It makes you aware of what's going on inside your own head and how you're reacting to things."

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Sure, anecdotes are great, and that article has several. But does it really work?

Turns out, it might. There is a limited amount of evidence that yoga and meditation are marginally effective in assisting to manage the symptoms of PTSD. That's about it. There is evidence that it works, but it's not good evidence.

Meditation for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder - A Systematic Review

Meditation and Yoga for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Meta-Analytic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials

Yoga for posttraumatic stress disorder – a systematic review and meta-analysis

Meditation for posttraumatic stress: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

One of the reasons that it might be marginally successful is that it makes the practitioner more aware of their mental state, which is important in the management of PTSD as it allows a sufferer to more effectively manage their symptoms. Mindfulness meditation teaches you to stand aside and allow the mental traffic to pass you by. The Litany Against Fear from Dune (I must not fear, fear is the mind-killer) is a short guided mindfulness meditation. So its method of operation is plausible.

Should it replace regular psychiatric care? No. But one thing that all of the systematic reviews and meta-analyses conclude is that there are no adverse effects. So even if the effects are only marginal, it might be worth doing anyway.

Placebos work very well for mental conditions. Probably as well as medication.

casebro said:

Placebos work very well for mental conditions. Probably as well as medication.

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Depends. If the source of the mental condition is chemical, etc. you might need medication.

casebro said:

Placebos work very well for mental conditions. Probably as well as medication.

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Not really. As Belz says, it depends very much on the condition. Purely psychogenic disorders such as depression and anxiety, sure, although I don't think the evidence is particularly robust for that either. PTSD has a biochemical component. It's generally treated with a combination of CBT and medication.

I feel like I'm missing some important context for understanding this thread.

What's the baseline conventional wisdom about yoga, around here? It's... a placebo?

theprestige said:

I feel like I'm missing some important context for understanding this thread.

What's the baseline conventional wisdom about yoga, around here? It's... a placebo?

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My opinion, having done it: It's a form of exercise. When done regularly, it does the things that regular exercise does. The way it's usually done it also incorporates a type of mindfulness meditation. A lot of people make a variety of unlikely claims for it, but none of those have been conclusively demonstrated.

For mindfulness meditation, there's some evidence that it can help calm anxiety, but again the wilder claims haven't been demonstrated.

arthwollipot said:

A lot of people make a variety of unlikely claims for it, but none of those have been conclusively demonstrated.

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The former is certainly true, but there is a wide spectrum of claims there, from quite plausible to just completely nuts.

On the side that I consider quite plausible, here's an anecdote: I was diagnosed with ADHD as a teenager (it was suggested that I be put on ritalin, but after a discussion with my mother, I declined). When I started practicing yoga at 17 I found that my ability to focus improved, but much more obviously my ability to remain calm when I had to stay still improved drastically. I used to panic if I had to stand in a line and my teachers in school all said I was a nice well behaved kid except that I wouldn't sit still and was constantly standing up, sitting on my desk, moving around, etc. After some time practicing yoga when I felt those urges I could just turn my mind inward and focus on my breath and I'd feel fine.
Whether or not there have been any studies of kids with ADHD using yoga practice as a therapy is an question whose answer I don't know, but I find the idea that it could be useful at least plausible. In my case it's possible that I was just maturing mentally at the same time I started practicing yoga, but the fact that I actively used techniques from the practice to deal with my issues suggests to me that it really was causative, at least in my case.

On the nuts side, well, people make claims that yoga can do pretty much anything.

Like Randi said about the eight year old visiting the healing fountain at Lourdes, looking at the wall with all the crutches and canes- "Where is all the wooden legs?"

casebro said:

Like Randi said about the eight year old visiting the healing fountain at Lourdes, looking at the wall with all the crutches and canes- "Where is all the wooden legs?"

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I don't see the relevance.

Roboramma said:

The former is certainly true, but there is a wide spectrum of claims there, from quite plausible to just completely nuts.

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You're right - but the less-nuts end of the spectrum is basically made up of general health claims. As I said, it's exercise, and it does all the things that regular exercise does when you do it regularly. Those claims aren't remarkable.

arthwollipot said:

My opinion, having done it: It's a form of exercise. When done regularly, it does the things that regular exercise does. The way it's usually done it also incorporates a type of mindfulness meditation. A lot of people make a variety of unlikely claims for it, but none of those have been conclusively demonstrated.

For mindfulness meditation, there's some evidence that it can help calm anxiety, but again the wilder claims haven't been demonstrated.

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There’s been a lot of work done on how mindfulness meditation helps cancer patients. My reading of the small sample of the literature I’ve read is that it works.

Cancer patients are surely very grateful to Buddhism, and the monks who sought to popularize mindfulness meditation, and to the thousands of social workers etc who helped refine the technique and teach patients how to benefit from it.

That said, how and why it works is pretty mysterious AFAIK.

If it is mindfulness (which I count as a greatly over-used and over-hyped term), then just about any exercise or activity can be beneficial if it diverts your attention. It might be yoga, or bushwalking, or weight-lifting, or travel. I have friends who have suffered mild PTSD from stressful situations who have used these and more to help.

I take medication and do breathing exercises for my PTSD. I also see a therapist, who is starting me on EMDR treatments. Too soon to tell.

JeanTate said:

There’s been a lot of work done on how mindfulness meditation helps cancer patients. My reading of the small sample of the literature I’ve read is that it works.

Cancer patients are surely very grateful to Buddhism, and the monks who sought to popularize mindfulness meditation, and to the thousands of social workers etc who helped refine the technique and teach patients how to benefit from it.

That said, how and why it works is pretty mysterious AFAIK.

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Again, evidence is there, but it is weak.