Abstract

Background: Symptoms of anxiety, depression, and cancer- related fatigue are generally associated with cancer.Cancer patients decreasingly use complementary and indispensable treatments, similar as yoga, to manage with psychological and physical impairments. In the present composition, long- term changes of anxiety, depression, and fatigue in cancer are examined 6 months after a yoga intervention.

Method: We used an experimental design based on a randomized controlled study in cancer patients with mixed diagnoses to estimate long- term changes of symptoms of anxiety, depression, and fatigue 6 months after the end of yoga remedy. We measured anxiety symptoms with the Generalized Anxiety complaint scale (GAD- 7), depressive symptoms with the Patient Health Questionnaire – 2(PHQ- 2), and fatigue with the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire – Fatigue Scale (EORTC QLQ- FA13). Yoga remedy was handed in yoga classes of 60 minutes each once a week for 8 weeks in aggregate. The exercises provided contained both body and breathing conditioning as well as contemplation. Results an aggregate of 58 patients shared in the study. Six months after the end of yoga remedy, symptoms of anxiety, depression, and fatigue were significantly reduced compared with baseline. Still, symptoms of anxiety and fatigue slightly increased during the follow-up period,whereas symptoms of depression remained stable.

Conclusion: Our results are promising and support the integration of yoga interventions in probative cancer treatment concepts but should be verified by randomized controlled trials. Long- term effects of yoga remedy on cancer patients should be the subject of further research.

Keywords: Cancer; Anxiety; Depression; Fatigue; Yoga; Probative care