THE IMPACT OF YOGA ON FATIGUE, POSTURAL CONTROL AND DEPRESSION IN PEOPLE WITH MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

Objective: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic and progressive neurodegenerative disease that influences patients’ physical, mental, and social functioning. Yoga is one of the most popular forms of mind-body approaches in people with MS (pwMS) to overcome the symptoms of the disease. This study aimed to investigate the effect of the yoga training program on fatigue, postural control, and depression level in pwMS. Material and Methods: Ten pwMS aged between 22-42 years were included in the study. The structured yoga training program was applied an hour per session, five times a week over 5 weeks. The yoga program consisted of basic yoga poses, breathing and warming exercises. Each session was focused on strengthening, postural control, relaxation, and flexibility. The yoga poses were asked to maintain for 15 seconds to 2 minutes. Patients were evaluated with The Fatigue Severity Scale for fatigue level, with single leg stance test for postural control, and with Beck depression inventory for depression level. Patients were evaluated before and after the therapeutic yoga program. Results: After 5 weeks of therapeutic yoga program, statistically significant improvements were detected in terms of fatigue, postural control, and depression level in pwMS (p=0.005; p=0.005; and p=0.007, respectively). Conclusion: This study showed that a supervised therapeutic yoga program might be effective on fatigue, postural control, and depression level in pwMS.