Yogic Breathing and Guided Meditation for Post-COVID Syndrome (PCS)

ABSTRACT

Methods: This is a six-week, waitlisted, Randomized Controlled Trial where participants are referred to study team by physicians at the BIDMC COVID clinic. Consenting participants are blindly randomized into either the intervention group or the waitlisted control. Intervention group participants learn the practices in the first week while waitlisted participants receive the intervention at the third week. Assessments evaluating changes in stress (Perceived Stress Scale), mood disturbance (Profile of Mood States), quality of life (SF-12), breathing discomfort (Multidimensional Dyspnea Profile) and physical symptoms (Somatic Symptoms Scale) were collected at 3 timepoints for both groups. Results: Currently, 57 participants are enrolled, of which 17 completed the study. Of the 17 completed participants, 88% routinely practiced Isha Kriya, 82% Simha Kriya & 94% Nadi Shuddhi. Average overall study satisfaction was reported as 7.6 on a scale on 1-10. Testimonials suggest that the intervention has been useful in managing symptoms. Data collection is ongoing. Background: Of those that are diagnosed with COVID-19, 10- 20% experience Post-COVID-19 Syndrome (PCS), where they continue to have symptoms such as fatigue, dyspnea, brain fog, stress, anxiety, and depression for months post-infection. Simha Kriya, Nadi Shuddhi, and Isha Kriya are yogic breathing and guided meditation practices that help maintain physical and mental wellbeing and reduce stress, anxiety, and fatigue.We hypothesized that these simple, safe, and scalable online practices may hold significant potential to improve the quality of life of PCS patients. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first RCT to study the feasibility of a multicomponent, online delivered yogic practices for PCS. Results from this study will provide a better understanding of the impact of complementary treatments on PCS symptoms. The protocol for this study (2021P000552) was approved by BIDMC's IRB. This trial (NCT05139979) was registered with US NIH on clinicaltrails.gov. There were no conflicts of interest.