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Study finds yoga good in controlling epilepsy

Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A yoga meditation protocol may be effective as an adjunctive therapy in patients with drug-resistant chronic epilepsy, according to a pilot study conducted by doctors at Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology here.

The results of the study, done at the R. Madhavan Nair Centre for Comprehensive Epilepsy Care, SCTIMST, has been published in one of the recent issues of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, an international science magazine.

The seizures in a majority of patients with epilepsy can be controlled easily with routinely available anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs). However, nearly one-third of patients with epilepsy have conditions that eventually become unmanageable even with multiple anti-epileptic drugs. The continuation of seizures and the side effects of the drugs cause serious impediments to the psycho-social functioning and quality of life of these patients with chronic epilepsies. Some of these patients can be cured of their seizures through temporal lobe surgery, while some others may benefit from emerging and investigational drugs or therapies.

However, these treatments methods are often prohibitively expensive. The study was conducted to explore the efficacy of yoga, as an ancient, inexpensive and non-pharmacological strategy, in patients with chronic medically refractory epilepsy.

Twenty patients with complex partial seizures, who failed to respond to standards anti-epileptic drug therapy at maximum tolerated dosages and who were willing to practice a yoga meditation protocol were recruited for the study.

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