“Yoga project in Oncology: observational study of the Yoga effects in cancer patient. The Poliambulanza experience”

Abstract

Background: In recent years, literature has reported an increase in the use of Complementary Alternative Medicine (CAM) by cancer patients to manage symptoms related to the disease or side effects of the treatments. Yoga is one of the most widely used complementary and alternative medicine therapies to cope with the most common symptoms of cancer as anxiety, depression, fatigue and sleep disorders. Recent studies conducted with cancer patients indicate that Yoga is associated with improvement in overall QOL, emotional well-being, physical symptoms and distress. In April 2013 we started the “Yoga project in Oncology ” which involved the use of specific exercises of this discipline as a complement of cancer treatments. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of Yoga training on mood, fatigue and sleep quality in metastatic cancer patients. Material and methods: The Yoga intervention used the Yoga Ratna approach, consisting of pranayama (breathing exercises), gentle yoga asanas (postures) and meditation. The program includes 8 weekly group meetings lasting 1.5 hours, trained by a Yoga professional teacher with a psychologist. At the beginning (T0) and at the end (T1) of the training we administered the following tests: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) to evaluate anxiety and depression; Fatigue Symptom Inventory (FSI) to assess fatigue symptoms; Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to assess sleep quality. Results: Sample consisted of 35 patients with metastatic cancer receiving chemotherapy. The majority of the patients were women (65.7%), the mean age was 55 years, 62.8% of patients were married and 45.7% were employed with a medium-high level of education (57.1%). All patients had advanced disease: 54.3% breast cancer, 31.4% colorectal cancer; 8.6% others gastrointestinal tumors and 5.7% pancreatic cancer. The preliminary results showed a not statistically significant trend concerning anxiety and depression improvement and a better sleep quality. In addition, we found an increase of fatigue symptoms. Conclusions: These results don't show statistically significant correlations probably because the still small sample treated so far. Moreover patients continued to receive medical treatment (chemotherapy) during Yoga training and this condition could have influenced their fatigue perception. Nevertheless, every participant expressed a very positive evaluation of this experience concerning a better body awareness and anxiety control.