National Institute of Mental Health (NIMHANS) has teamed-up with the Moraji Desai National Institute of Yoga, New Delhi to set up a dedicated department of yoga sciences in Bangalore for the treatment of many mental disorders. Clinical trials are being organized on select elderly patients to provide the evidence on the extent of improvement in terms of concentration and memory power.

The new department will provide simple but effective yoga exercise for the patients admitted in NIMHANS and also ensure that outpatients can access the facility to improve their mental health conditions. The clinical trial after an informed consent is for a period of three months and the team of doctors are confident on the improvement to be shown on the patients who are diagnosed and treated for depression.

In 2004, NIMHAMS has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (Research Foundation) (sVYASA) to treat and conduct research on schizophrenia. NIMHANS has been experimenting with yoga to treat schizophrenia and has conducted an informed consent trial on the benefits of yoga. 'sVYASA' had deputed a dedicated consultant for the trial. The leads provided in the trial showed early benefits for schizophrenia, which is a type of mental illness characterized by delusional thinking, hallucinations, and a lack of normal emotional response.

After the benefits ascertained from the study for schizophrenia, the new yoga department has been specially created for the aged patients. According to Dr N Sivakumar, psychiatrist, NIMHANS, patients with depression and mild cognitive problems have higher risk of developing dementia. Therefore yoga is definitely the answer.

Research has shown that yoga promotes a neuro chemical change in the brain which comes in handy to fight depression. But the research is being done on middle aged people and now we are conducting a clinical study involving elderly patients, he added.

There is no effective allopathy treatment available to heal both physical as well as cognitive problems. Therefore patients tend to shift towards the traditional systems of medicine. This is where yoga comes into play. Although people are aware on the benefits of yoga practice, this form of therapy has been criticized for the lack of scientific evidence. With the latest technology like MRI changes in the brain while performing yoga can be studied and researched.

A recent study by NIMHANS showed that majority of the senior citizens who visit NIMHANS take more doses of medication and 25 per cent suffered from memory loss.

The doctors manning the Advanced Centre of Yoga Research recommended balancing postures, breathing exercises known as pranayama and medication to improve the over all health condition.

The key benefits of yoga are that it can treat memory problems and depression. It can help to reduce the medication. For those suffering from chronic diseases, yoga can be an add-on therapy.

For patients who suffer from both depression and arthritis, postures like sukshma, vyayama, purna bhuja sakti vikasa, for strengthening of arms, manibandha sakti vikasa to improve the writs improvement, karatala sakti vikasaka for the movement of palms and janusakti vikasala for the knees are being advised.