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Yoga Helps with Ptsd

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Breathing-Based Meditation Decreases Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms in U.S. Military Veterans: A Randomized Controlled Longitudinal Study

Beverly Hinderliter

A growing body of evidence suggests meditation-based interventions have the potential to reduce symptoms and improve well-being (Marchand, 2013 for review; Mitchell et al., 2014). The Stanford University study entitled Breathing-Based Meditation Decreased Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms in U.S. Military Veterans: A Randomized Controlled Longitudinal Study explores the effects of Sudarshan Kriya yoga, a meditation-based therapy, on U.S. military veterans with PTSD symptoms having served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We selected Sudarshan Kriya yoga because it has effectively reduced PTSD symptoms in tsunami survivors (Descilo et al., 2009), increased self-reported optimism and well-being in college students (Kjellgren, Bood, Axelsson, Norlander, & Saatcioglu, 2007), decreased self-reported anxiety in those with general anxiety disorder (Katzman et al., 2012), and decreased self-reported depression in those with melancholic depression (Janakiramaiah et al., 2000) as well as in alcohol-dependent inpatients (Vedamurthachar et al., 2006)” – Emma M. Seppala, Center for Compassion and Altruism Research, Stanford University.
This study falls under multiple categories. It is randomized, controlled, correlational, and longitudinal. These will be touched on in the following paragraphs.
The random sample population was chosen through means of public outreach. The participants learned about the study through flyers and veteran and military organizations and volunteered by telephoning the lab. They had to meet specific criteria in order to partake in the study, which was evaluated in a pre-screening, and included being male (to control for effects of sex), 18 years of age or older, fluent in

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