Effects of yogic intervention on pain scores and quality of life in females with chronic pelvic pain.
BACKGROUND
Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) is a common condition of women of the reproductive age group. It has a negative impact on a woman's personal health and quality of life (QOL). Practicing yoga has shown numerous benefits in various chronic painful conditions.


OBJECTIVE
To study the effects of yogic intervention on pain scores and quality of life in females of reproductive age group with CPP, on conventional therapy.


METHODS
It is a follow-up, randomized case-control study done in a tertiary care hospital.


METHODS
Sixty female patients of CPP in the age group of 18-45 years were randomly divided into Group I (n= 30) and Group II (n= 30). Group I received only conventional therapy in the form of NSAIDS and Group II received yoga therapy in the form of asanas, pranayama, and relaxation along with the conventional therapy for 8 weeks. They were assessed twice (pre- and post-treatment) for pain scores through visual analog scale (VAS) score and QOL by the World Health Organization quality of life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire.


METHODS
Repeated measure ANOVA followed by Tukey's test.P< 0.05 was considered significant.


RESULTS
After 8 weeks of yogic intervention, Group II patients showed a significant decrease in intensity of pain seen by a decrease in VAS score (P< 0.001) and improvement in the quality of life with a significant increase (P< 0.001) in physical, psychological, social, and environmental domain scores of WHOQOL-BREF.


CONCLUSIONS
The practice of yoga causes a reduction in the pain intensity and improves the quality of life in patients with chronic pelvic pain.
Department of Physiology, Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, University College of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
Rahul
R
Saxena
Department of Physiology, Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, University College of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
Manish
M
Gupta
Department of Physiology, Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, University College of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
Nilima
N
Shankar
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, University College of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
Sandhya
S
Jain
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, University College of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
Arushi
A
Saxena
Chronic pelvic pain; World Health Organization quality of life-BREF; pain scores; quality of life; yoga