Effectiveness and safety of yoga to treat chronic and acute pain: a rapid review of systematic reviews
Open accessAbstract
Background Pain is a sensation of discomfort that affects a large part of the population. Yoga is indicated to treat various health conditions, including chronic and acute pain. Objective To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of yoga to treat acute or chronic pain in the adult and elderly population. Study selection A rapid review was carried out, following a protocol established a priori. Searches were carried out in September 2019, in six databases, using PICOS and MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) and DeCS (Descritores em Ciências da Saúde) terms. Systematic reviews were included, and methodological quality was assessed using Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews. The results were presented in a narrative synthesis. Findings Ten systematic reviews were selected. Two reviews were assessed as of high methodological quality, two as of low quality, and six of critically low quality. Results were favourable to yoga compared with usual daily care, particularly in low back and cervical pain cases. There was little evidence about the superiority of yoga compared with active interventions (exercises, pilates or complementary and complementary medicine). It was also less consistent in pain associated with fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, carpal tunnel and irritable bowel syndromes. There was an improvement in the quality of life and mood of the participants, especially for yoga compared with usual care, exercises and waiting list. Conclusions Overall, the results were favourable to yoga compared with usual care in low back and cervical pain cases. The evidence is insufficient to assert yoga’s benefits for other pain conditions, as well as its superiority over active interventions. The findings must be considered with caution, given their low methodological quality and the small samples in the primary studies reported in the included systematic reviews. Thus, more studies must be carried out to improve the reliability of the results.
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Eight reviews evaluated exercise-based interventions in the time following injury and reported distress-related outcomes.
“Eight reviews evaluated exercise-based interventions in the time following injury and reported distress-related outcomes (online supplemental table 1).8390”
From Impact of healthcare interventions on distress following acute musculoskeletal/orthopaedic injury: A scoping review of systematic reviews (2024) · cites this paper as [83]
The Studies characteristics section reports that the yoga reviews assessed psychosocial outcomes, which partly supports the reference to exercise-based interventions and distress-related outcomes. The Results > Selection section says ten reviews were included, eight with meta-analysis; it does not say eight reviews evaluated interventions following injury or reported distress-related outcomes. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredOne review evaluated yoga, reporting potential benefits for distress-related outcomes.
“One review evaluated yoga, reporting potential benefits for distress-related outcomes.83”
From Impact of healthcare interventions on distress following acute musculoskeletal/orthopaedic injury: A scoping review of systematic reviews (2024) · cites this paper as [83]
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- Authors
- Crevelário de Melo, R., Victoria Ribeiro, A. Â., Luquine Jr, C. D., de Bortoli, M. C., Toma, T. S., & Barreto, J. O. M.
- Affiliations
- Center for Health Technologies SUS/SP, Instituto de Saúde, Secretaria da Saude do Estado de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
- Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences, State University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil
- Instituto de Saúde (BR)
- Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (BR)
- Corresponding author
- Barreto, Jorge Otávio Maia
- ORCID
- Venue
- BMJ Open
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2021-12
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- e048536
- ISSN
- 2044-6055 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8719171
- OpenAlex
- W4206453389
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 3
- FWCI
- 0.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- BMJ Open (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Arca - Repositório Institucional da Fiocruz (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Ministério da Saúde
- Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (43/2016)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Complementary and Alternative Medicine Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Acupuncture Treatment Research Studies
- Keywords
- yoga, chronic pain, acute pain, low back pain, neck pain, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, quality of life, mood, safety, methodological quality of systematic reviews
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