Yoga, meditation can improve mental health among disadvantaged, minority women

Women in the U.S. suffer from depression at twice the rate that men do, and women in low socioeconomic areas, with the limited availability of mental health care services in the country, have a harder time managing and treating their mental health problems.

But new research from Northwestern University in Chicago points to how women could manage their depressive symptoms independent of seeing a psychologist regularly or taking antidepressant medications.

A study, published Aug. 13 in the journal Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, was led by Inger Burnett-Zeigler, a practicing clinical psychologist and an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

It was found that mindful practices like yoga, meditation and mental body scans lowered depressive symptoms for the 31 female participants, who were recruited through the Komed Holman Health Center, a federally qualified health center serving underprivileged communities in Chicago. All the participants reported symptoms of depression and came from low socioeconomic backgrounds.

The mindful practices helped these women better identify stressful triggers and then avoid negative physiological reactions to them like headaches, difficulty sleeping, muscle tension and gastrointestinal difficulties.  

Over a 16-week period as participants engaged in mindful practices, the researchers collected data on participants’ stress levels, well-being and mindfulness at baseline, at eight weeks and at 16 weeks.

Findings showed the women had lower levels of stress and depressive symptoms while their mindfulness steadily increased.

“One of the great things about this intervention, not only in this population, but in the broader population, is that many people go through an eight-week course or a four-week course and find techniques that they can do independently,” said Burnett-Zeigler. “It’s really the foundation for a long-term independent practice that they can use to help with coping on their own.”

Burnett-Zeigler’s motivation for conducting the study stemmed from her previous research about patterns in mental health service utilization, looking at barriers that limited access and engagement, she said. She found that racial and ethnic minorities of lower socioeconomic statuses were less likely to use mental health services based on limited availability of providers and negative stigmas around mental health and psychiatric disorders.

“I just became very interested in what alternative approaches to reaching populations with high levels of need and low levels of access might be,” Burnett-Zeigler said. “There’s growing literature in the general population about the benefits of mindfulness and I was really interested in exploring if this would be a potential gateway to providing low-cost, accessible intervention that would help improve moods among traditionally underserved populations.”

Of the women who participated in the study, only 13 percent of them had received mental health treatment in the last year, 45 percent of them had no prior experience with medication and 71 percent had no past experience with yoga.

Burnett-Zeigler found in her research that stigmas often deter women from seeking mental treatment, particularly when treatment involves taking medication.

“People feel that it’s a sign of weakness, and that something is really wrong if they need to take medication,” she said.

That’s one of the reasons patients in general may feel more comfortable opting for yoga or meditation, said Susana Galle, PhD, a clinical neuropsychologist and psychopharmacologist, who is the director of the Body-Mind Center, an integrative mental, behavioral health and wellness practice based in Washington, D.C. She has been using yoga and meditation to treat her patients for more than 25 years.

“This is something that 20 or 30 years ago was not popular when I started doing this work. But today, it’s exploded,” Galle said.

She said mindful practices are beneficial when treating mental health problems like depression because they allow patients to develop a witness consciousness, a state in which patients are more aware of their emotions, which lets them better manage them.

“With a witness consciousness, you realize that your emotions are only a part of you,” Galle said. “Both yoga and meditation facilitate that. They are two [practices] that are very conducive to the healing response, both physically and mentally.”

With more research being done to support using mindful practice as a legitimate way to treat depression and other mental health problems, Galle said she hopes more providers integrate it into their treatment methods.

Likewise, Burnett-Zeigler said she hopes her findings can make their way into a more holistic approach to mental health care, but even if they don’t, there’s always avenues for patients to access the knowledge on their own.

“[It’s] another tool in your tool box,” Burnett-Zeigler said. “There’s a wealth of ways that people can learn these techniques independently.”