Outcome of yoga therapy on depression among elderly residing in selected old age home at Tamil Nadu-India

Depression is the common problem in geriatric population but it is under estimated or may not be concentrated by the health professionals. Untreated depression leads to poor quality of life or ultimately loss of life. Recent studies concentrates on alternative therapy instead the pharmacotherapy which is associated with many untoward effects. This study assessed and compared the pre and post test depression and also studied the influence of the demographic variables of the elderly those residing at old age home. In the Pre experimental one group pre test post test design 48 elderly with depression were given yoga therapy for 16 weeks. Geriatric depression scale long version was used to estimate the level of depression of the elderly before and after the yoga therapy. Result of the study showed that, at the pre test all the elderly were having mild dpepression, after 16 weeks of intervention 60% of the elderly became normal. The Paired‘t’ value was 11.6, the study concluded that yoga therapy was the effective measure in reducing geriatric depression.