A influência de uma técnica de respiração de yoga no tratamento da depressão maior: associações com o devaneio mental e a interocepção

Abstract

Major depression (MD) is a psychiatric disorder that affects more than 320 million people around the world and, although there are several drugs to induce the reduction of the symptomatology of the disease, some of the patients do not adapt to drug monotherapy and, approximately, one-third of the patients do not respond to pharmacological treatment. Thus, other treatment options should be considered. Despite some studies point to the benefits of yoga in reducing depressive symptoms, this practice hasn’t been included in the guidelines for the management of MD yet. Considering this, the objective of this study was to evaluate the antidepressant response mediated by the execution of an on-line and home-based protocol of Ujjayi breathing pranayama in university students with major depression, and the possible correlations between such response, interoception and mind wandering (MW). The treatment lasted 12 weeks, being a weekly session of 1 hour of intervention guided by a yoga therapist and 3 other 20 minutes weekly sessions through videos, totaling 2 hours of weekly therapy. Patients with moderate to severe MD were also treated with antidepressants. After statistical analysis, we found that a reduction in depressive symptoms was observed regardless of the use of the antidepressant, which was correlated with the decrease in mind wandering and the increase in interoception. Previous studies showed that yoga can be an adjuvant alternative for the treatment of MD, by promoting the reduction of depressive symptoms and rumination, a type of MW. However, there are few investigations reporting the use of specific protocols of yoga's breathing techniques in individuals with MD and also, relating the clinical response with interoception and MW. Given the above, although the sample size of the present study was small, it has good contributions and favorable results to the use of pranayama yoga practices as a complementary therapy for the treatment of MD, highlighting the importance of increasing interoception and reducing MW for clinical improvement.