Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Yoga as a Therapeutic Intervention


Publishing date
21 Sep 2012
Status
Published
Submission deadline
25 May 2012

Lead Editor

1Quality of Life, Spirituality and Coping, Center of Integrative Medicine, Faculty of Healthy, Witten/Herdecke University, Germany

2Division of Sleep Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

3Department of Internal and Complementary Medicine, Charité-University Medical Centre/Immanuel Hospital Berlin-Wannsee, Berlin, Germany

4Center for Health Studies, Group Health Cooperative, Seattle, WA, USA


Yoga as a Therapeutic Intervention

Description

Yoga is an ancient mind/body practice that originated on the Indian subcontinent that promotes overall health and well-being and whose ultimate goal is the achievement of a unitive experience of consciousness. Today yoga is very popular also in the general Western public and there are numerous schools or types of yoga with distinct priorities in terms of spiritual and physical practices. Despite several clinical studies and systematic reviews on the effects of yoga, the issue of whether yoga should be recommended as a clinically relevant primary or adjunctive intervention still requires scientific validation.

With respect to specific indications and disorders, several studies report positive effects in favor of yoga interventions, while other studies on the same topic are less conclusive. This effect may depend on different cohorts (age, gender, health status, etc.), variable diagnoses and study entry criteria, different yoga styles, different intensities, frequencies and durations of yoga interventions, attrition effects, and so on. Moreover, as a relatively new field of research most of the research trials are preliminary in nature with typically small sample sizes, moderate methodological quality, and often inadequate control groups, and thus the general findings may be more or less inconclusive.

For this special issue, we invite investigators to submit original research articles and systematic reviews/meta-analyses on the clinical effects of yoga intervention programs. The special issue will start with a summarizing overview on various reviews on the clinical effects of yoga interventions on physical and mental health.

We are particularly interested in high-quality articles related to traditional and therefore complex yoga interventions. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Clinical studies with active control groups focusing on either physical or mental health
  • Evaluation of the relative contributions of the different facets of yoga practice (i.e., yoga postures, breathing techniques, mental concentration/relaxation, etc.) to therapeutic outcome
  • Optimal duration/intensity of yoga intervention programs
  • Sustainability of yoga effects
  • Underlying mechanisms contributing to therapeutic efficacy
  • Evaluation of yoga in the support of self-competence and self-efficacy in patients with chronic disorders
  • Yoga lifestyle and health behavior changes

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/ecam/yoga/ according to the following timetable:


Articles

  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2012
  • - Article ID 174291
  • - Editorial

Yoga as a Therapeutic Intervention

Arndt Büssing | Sat Bir S. Khalsa | ... | Shirley Telles
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2012
  • - Article ID 863905
  • - Review Article

Effectiveness of Yoga for Menopausal Symptoms: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Holger Cramer | Romy Lauche | ... | Gustav Dobos
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2012
  • - Article ID 143271
  • - Review Article

Guidelines for Developing Yoga Interventions for Randomized Trials

Karen J. Sherman
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2012
  • - Article ID 408727
  • - Research Article

Iyengar Yoga for Distressed Women: A 3-Armed Randomized Controlled Trial

Andreas Michalsen | Michael Jeitler | ... | Christian Kessler
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2012
  • - Article ID 165410
  • - Review Article

Effects of Yoga on Mental and Physical Health: A Short Summary of Reviews

Arndt Büssing | Andreas Michalsen | ... | Karen J. Sherman
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2012
  • - Article ID 758641
  • - Review Article

The Evolution of Mindfulness-Based Physical Interventions in Breast Cancer Survivors

Daniela L. Stan | Nerissa M. Collins | ... | Sandhya Pruthi
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2012
  • - Article ID 124703
  • - Review Article

Effects of Yoga Interventions on Fatigue: A Meta-Analysis

Katja Boehm | Thomas Ostermann | ... | Arndt Büssing
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2012
  • - Article ID 971896
  • - Research Article

The Physical Demands of the Tree (Vriksasana) and One-Leg Balance (Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana) Poses Performed by Seniors: A Biomechanical Examination

Sean S.-Y. Yu | Man-Ying Wang | ... | George J. Salem
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2012
  • - Article ID 983258
  • - Research Article

Frequency of Yoga Practice Predicts Health: Results of a National Survey of Yoga Practitioners

Alyson Ross | Erika Friedmann | ... | Sue Thomas
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2012
  • - Article ID 715942
  • - Review Article

Systematic Review of Yoga for Pregnant Women: Current Status and Future Directions

Kathryn Curtis | Aliza Weinrib | Joel Katz
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
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Acceptance rate7%
Submission to final decision145 days
Acceptance to publication29 days
CiteScore3.500
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