Impact of Yoga Therapy on Psychopathology and Behavior of Patients Undergoing Lower Limb Amputation Following Trauma: An RCT from a Tertiary Care Trauma Center

Background: Yoga enhances positive health and well-being in a person. Research papers have shown it to be effective in various health conditions and postsurgical outcome. Index research is a randomized control trial to assess the efficacy of yoga therapy on psychological health of patients undergoing amputation following trauma.

Methods: The study consisted of enrolment of 30 patients by random allottment to experimental and control groups (15 patients each). Patients who underwent lower limb amputation post trauma, between age group of >20 and <60 years, both males and females, were selected. Patients with significant head injury or history of severe physical or psychological illnesses were excluded. WHOQOL BREF was used to assess quality of life, Rosenberg’s Self Esteem Scale to assess the subjective account of self-esteem. DASS was used to assess depression, anxiety, and stress, while MINI interview was used to assess different psychopathologies. Yoga therapy sessions for six weeks were given to experimental group in addition to standard treatment and physiotherapy. Results revealed that the two groups differed at the baseline on environmental sub-domain of QOL (control group with better score); anxiety, depression, and DASS total score (high in experimental group), and total self-esteem score (low in experimental group). Post yoga therapy, groups differed on anxiety scores (high in experimental group) and total self-esteem scores (high in control group). Findings suggest patients have improved on QOL and depression, but no improvement was noticed in anxiety and self-esteem possibly because of number of confounding variables like differences in severity of injuries, duration of hospital stay, need for amputation revisions, duration of ICU stay, and severity of pain.

Conclusion: Yoga therapy seems to be beneficial for patients post amputation, but more controlled researches are needed to confirm the claim.