NCT03553745

How Body Awareness Promotes Mental Health During Yoga and Physical Exercise

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 71 (actual)
• Sponsor: Massachusetts General Hospital · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 55 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The integrity of interoceptive networks is linked to resilience against depressive symptoms, whereas degradation of these networks is linked to apathy and deficits in emotion processing. The goal of this study is to compare two major styles of yoga and cardiovascular exercise through a 10-week training program to promote interoceptive awareness. The researchers hypothesize that improvement in affective symptomatology will be correlated with better interoceptive development. Changes in mood related symptoms and interoception will be assessed at baseline, week 12 and week 14, in a cohort of adults aged 18-55.

Detailed description

A recent annual survey of U.S. college freshman has found consistently declining levels of emotional health over the past 25 years. Exposure to such stress can have profound longitudinal effects on well being, influencing risk for disease later in life. Physical exercise is linked to benefits across a variety of physical and psychological domains. While the affective and physiological consequences of exercise are well-documented, how they work to improve subjective well-being is unclear. It has been suggested that exercise promotes well-being by increasing interoception. The integrity of interoceptive networks is linked to resilience against depressive symptoms, whereas degradation of these networks is linked to apathy and deficits in emotion processing. The goal of this study is to compare two major styles of yoga and cardiovascular exercise through a 10-week training program to promote interoceptive awareness. The researchers hypothesize that improvement in affective symptomatology will be correlated with better interoceptive development. Changes in mood related symptoms and interoception will be assessed at baseline, week 12 and week 14, in a cohort of adults aged 18-55.

Conditions

• Negative Thoughts
• Mild Depression
• Stress

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Gentle Yoga Intervention	10-week exercise program structured around gentle yoga practice.
BEHAVIORAL	Rigorous Yoga Intervention	10-week exercise program structured around rigorous yoga practice.
BEHAVIORAL	Physical Exercise Intervention	10-week exercise program structured around cardiovascular exercise.

Timeline

• Start date: 2018-03-01
• Primary completion: 2021-02-23
• Completion: 2021-02-23
• First posted: 2018-06-12
• Last updated: 2021-02-25

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States