Long-Term Changes of Symptoms of Anxiety, Depression, and Fatigue in Cancer Patients 6 Months After the End of Yoga Therapy
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Symptoms of anxiety, depression, and cancer-related fatigue are commonly associated with cancer. Cancer patients increasingly use complementary and alternative treatments, such as yoga, to cope with psychological and physical impairments. In the present article, long-term changes of anxiety, depression, and fatigue in cancer are examined 6 months after a yoga intervention. METHOD: We used an observational design based on a randomized controlled study in cancer patients with mixed diagnoses to evaluate long-term changes of symptoms of anxiety, depression, and fatigue 6 months after the end of yoga therapy. We measured anxiety symptoms with the Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7), depressive symptoms with the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2), and fatigue with the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-Fatigue Scale (EORTC QLQ-FA13). Yoga therapy was provided in yoga classes of 60 minutes each once a week for 8 weeks in total. The exercises provided contained both body and breathing activities as well as meditation. RESULTS: A total of 58 patients participated in the study. Six months after the end of yoga therapy, symptoms of anxiety, depression, and fatigue were significantly reduced compared with baseline. However, symptoms of anxiety and fatigue slightly increased during the follow-up period, whereas symptoms of depression remained stable. CONCLUSION: Our results are promising and support the integration of yoga interventions in supportive cancer treatment concepts but should be confirmed by randomized controlled trials. Long-term effects of yoga therapy on cancer patients should be the subject of further research.
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The positive effects of yoga on patients' psychological well-being have long been known.
“Although the positive effects of yoga on patients’ psychological well-being have long been known [55,56,57,58,59] the study conducted in this project showed that cancer patients could successfully practice vinyasa yoga.”
From The Effect of Vinyasa Yoga Practice on the Well-Being of Breast-Cancer Patients during COVID-19 Pandemic (2023) · cites this paper as [58]
The Introduction reports that earlier reviews and meta-analyses suggest yoga might reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms in cancer patients. That supports a possible psychological benefit, but the claim’s categorical wording (“have long been known”) is stronger than the source’s qualified account. The Strengths and Limitations section also says this study cannot causally attribute its observed improvements to yoga. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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BackgroundSelf-citation
- Authors
- Lundt, A., & Jentschke, E.
- Affiliations
- University of Würzburg (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Jentschke, Elisabeth
- ORCID
- Jentschke, Elisabeth
- Venue
- Integrative Cancer Therapies
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2019-01
- Volume
- 18
- Pages
- 1534735418822096-1534735418822096
- ISSN
- 1534-7354 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-695X
- PMC
- PMC7240880
- OpenAlex
- W2913065853
- Cited by
- 92
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 32 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 3
- FWCI
- 2.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Integrative Cancer Therapies (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer survivorship and care
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Complementary and Alternative Medicine Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Keywords
- yoga therapy, cancer patients, anxiety, depression, cancer-related fatigue, long-term effects, complementary and alternative medicine, meditation, breathing exercises
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Anxiety, Depression, Exercise Therapy, Fatigue, Humans, Middle Aged, Neoplasms, Stress, Psychological, Yoga, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Meditation, Young Adult
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