Effectiveness of yoga intervention enhanced by progressive muscular relaxation on pain in women after breast cancer surgery

Abstract

Introduction. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of yoga intervention enhanced by progressive muscular relaxation on pain in women after breast cancer surgery. Methods. overall, 84 patients after Madden mastectomy were eligible for this study. After the exclusion of 7 women, 77 participants were randomly allocated to group A (n = 38), receiving progressive muscular relaxation and visualization exercises in addition to yoga intervention, and group B (n = 39), receiving yoga intervention only. McGill Pain Questionnaire and visual analogue scale were used to evaluate pain at baseline and after the 4-week intervention. Results. Most of the investigated pain characteristics in both studied groups steadily improved during the 4-week rehabilitation. However, the 4-week monitoring indicated that using progressive muscular relaxation and visualization exercises in addition to the yoga intervention was more effective for reducing self-reported pain in women after Madden mastectomy. The post-intervention level of pain reported in the visual analogue scale and present pain intensity were statistically lower in group A compared with group B by 0.99 points (p < 0.05) and 1.68 points (p < 0.05), respectively. Conclusions. Performing progressive muscular relaxation and visualization exercises in addition to yoga intervention helped reduce pain in women after Madden mastectomy.