“Effect of pranayama and meditation as an add-on therapy in rehabilitation of patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome—a randomized control pilot study”

Objective: To study the add-on effects of pranayama and meditation in rehabilitation of patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). Patients and

Method: This randomized control pilot study was conducted in neurological rehabilitation unit of university tertiary research hospital. Twenty-two GBS patients, who consented for the study and satisfied selection criteria, were randomly assigned to yoga and control groups. Ten patients in each group completed the study. The yoga group received 15 sessions in total over a period of 3 weeks (1 h/session), one session per day on 5 days per week that consisted of relaxation, Pranayama (breathing practices) and Guided meditation in addition to conventional rehabilitation therapeutics. The control group received usual rehabilitation care. All the patients were assessed using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Numeric pain rating scale, Hospital anxiety and Depression scale and Barthel index score. Mann–Whitney U test and Wilcoxon’s signed rank test were used for statistical analysis.

Results: Quality of sleep improved significantly with reduction of PSQI score in the yoga group (p = 0.04). There was reduction of pain scores, anxiety and depression in both the groups without statistical significance between groups (pain p > 0.05, anxiety p > 0.05 and depression p > 0.05). Overall functional status improved in both groups without significant difference (p > 0.05).

Conclusions: Significant improvement was observed in quality of sleep with yogic relaxation, pranayama, and meditation in GBS patients.Implications for RehabilitationGBS is an inflammatory demyelinating polyneuro radiculopathy with multiple complications requiring long term care.Yoga and other rehabilitation measures contribute in improving functional abilities, pain and sleep quality in GBS patients.This randomized control trial showed that short term yoga practice can improve the quality of sleep as compare to other rehabilitation measures in GBS patients