A three-month study found that yoga works better to ease anxiety than standard education on stress management, but not as well as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Researchers randomly assigned 226 men and women with generalized anxiety disorder to CBT, Kundalini yoga or stress management education. After three months, results showed that 54 percent of the study participants who practiced yoga had meaningfully improved symptoms compared to 33 percent in the stress-management group.

Those treated with CBT did even better – symptoms improved among 71 percent of the study participants. Six months later the positive effects of CBT were still measurable and were maintained better than those of the other two approaches. Study leader Naomi Simon, M.D. noted that many people “already seek complementary and alternative interventions including yoga, to treat anxiety.” She added that the new study results suggest “that at least short-term there is significant value for people with generalized anxiety disorder to give yoga a try to see if it works for them.”

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