Effects of yoga interventions on pain and pain-associated disability: a meta-analysis
PainSci notes on Büssing 2012:
This meta-analysis found that “All studies reported positive effects in favor of the yoga interventions” and concludes that “yoga is a useful supplementary approach with moderate effect sizes on pain and associated disability.” Comparison to other kinds of exercise is no given any consideration here.
Common issues and characteristics relevant to this paper: ?Scientific papers have many common characteristics, flaws, and limitations, and many of these are rarely or never acknowledged in the paper itself, or even by other reviewers. I have reviewed thousands of papers, and described many of these issues literally hundreds of times. Eventually I got sick of repeating myself, and so now I just refer to a list common characteristics, especially flaws. Not every single one of them applies perfectly to every paper, but if something is listed here, it is relevant in some way. Note that in the case of reviews, the issue may apply to the science being reviewed, and not the review itself.
- Garbage in, garbage out — not enough good quality data to meaningfully review/analyze.
original abstract †Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
We searched databases for controlled clinical studies, and performed a meta-analysis on the effectiveness of yoga interventions on pain and associated disability. Five randomized studies reported single-blinding and had a higher methodological quality; 7 studies were randomized but not blinded and had moderate quality; and 4 nonrandomized studies had low quality. In 6 studies, yoga was used to treat patients with back pain; in 2 studies to treat rheumatoid arthritis; in 2 studies to treat patients with headache/migraine; and 6 studies enrolled individuals for other indications. All studies reported positive effects in favor of the yoga interventions. With respect to pain, a random effect meta-analysis estimated the overall treatment effect at SMD = -.74 (CI: -.97; -.52, P < .0001), and an overall treatment effect at SMD = -.79 (CI: -1.02; -.56, P < .0001) for pain-related disability. Despite some limitations, there is evidence that yoga may be useful for several pain-associated disorders. Moreover, there are hints that even short-term interventions might be effective. Nevertheless, large-scale further studies have to identify which patients may benefit from the respective interventions.
PERSPECTIVE: This meta-analysis suggests that yoga is a useful supplementary approach with moderate effect sizes on pain and associated disability.
related content
- “Yoga for Treating Headaches: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis,” Anheyer et al, J Gen Intern Med, 2020.
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
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