Pilot Study of Adjunctive Yoga for Bipolar Depression

As a practice that incorporates elements of physical exercise, controlled breathing, and meditation, yoga is gaining increasing acceptance as an adjunctive intervention for many psychiatric disorders. Although yoga has been frequently recommended as a symptom management strategy for bipolar disorder (BD), and although there is some preliminary evidence that yoga may be helpful in alleviating depressive symptoms, there are no systematic studies on the benefits - and potential risks - of the practice of yoga in BD. The primary aim of the proposed study is to develop and evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and safety of an adjunctive yoga intervention for bipolar depression in a 10 week pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT).