Introduction
Psychodermatologic disorder is a condition that involves an interaction between the mind and the skin.1 Psoriasis, which are not directly connected to mind, but it was precipitated or exacerbated by psychological stress. Psoriasis is a genetically determined immune-mediated inflammatory disease mediated by T-helper 1 (Th1)/Th17 T cells. With a prevalence of 0.44–2.8 percent in India, it commonly affects individuals in their third or fourth decade with males being affected two times more common than females.2 Psoriasis has greater impact on the quality of life of patients and their families leads to great physical, emotional and social burden. Yoga is the unique combination of isometric muscular contractions, stretching exercises, relaxation techniques, and breathing exercises.3, 4 Numerous studies have been done in the past few decades on psycho physiological and biochemical changes occurring following the practice of yoga.5, 6, 7 Various studies show adjuvant Yoga therapy alleviates stress in normal subjects and patients with different conditions.8
Table 1
Table 2
Materials and Methods
This randomized controlled pilot trial of 12 weeks was undertaken as an interdisciplinary collaborative work between the Centre for Yoga Therapy Education and Research (CYTER) of Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth, and the Department of Dermatology of Mahatma Gandhi Medical College & Research Institute (MGMCRI), Puducherry. Institutional Human Ethics Committee, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth (PG Dissertation/2018/06/01). The study was also registered with CTRI (CTRI/2018/08/015558). Data of 20 patients (12 female, 8 male) with a mean age of 44.40 ± 15.2y who were referred by Dept. of Dermatology and attended yoga therapy sessions at CYTER was used for analysis.
The subjects were randomized into the Yoga and control groups by simple randomization technique. Participants were undergoing appropriate yoga therapy protocols. Supervised yoga training was given an hour a day, twice a week for 12 weeks. Heart rate (HR), systolic pressure (SP), and diastolic pressure (DP) were recorded using non-invasive blood pressure (NIBP) apparatus before and after the study period. The other CV indices such as Pulse pressure (PP), mean pressure (MP), rate-pressure product (RPP), and double product (DoP) were derived using the appropriate formula. The yogic techniques given as yoga training are listed in(Table 1.) The statistical analysis was done using Student’s paired T-test for intragroup comparison and Student’s unpaired T-test for inter-group comparison between the groups as all the data passed normality testing.
Results
The inter-group comparison showed statistically significant changes (p<0.05) in Spand derived CV indices such as PP, RPP & DoP (Table 2) after 12 weeks of Yoga training. The intragroup comparison in the control group showed a significant increase in SP and DP (p<0.05).
Conclusion
There is a healthy reduction in SP and derived CV indices following 12 weeks of yoga training. The magnitude of this reduction depends on the pre-existing medical condition and intensity of the disease in each participant. RPP and DoP are indirect indicators of myocardial Oxygen consumption and load on the heart, thereby signifying a lowering of strain on the heart.9, 10 These changes may be attributed to enhanced harmony of cardiac autonomic function as a result of coordinated breath-body work and mind-body relaxation due to yoga resulting in a significant reduction in the perceived stress,11 thereby showing desirable improvement in their dermatological health status too.