Archive · 10 Jan 2026
Yoga Speeds Opioid Withdrawal Recovery, Reduces Anxiety
A new study found that yoga can help people recover from opioid withdrawal faster.
Opioid withdrawal can cause many unpleasant symptoms like anxiety, insomnia, and pain.
The study involved 59 men with opioid use disorder.
Those who did yoga along with their regular treatment got better much quicker than those who didn't do yoga.
They also felt less anxious, slept better, and had less pain.
The researchers think yoga helps by calming the nervous system, which regular medicines might not do as well.
This could be a big help for people trying to overcome opioid addiction.
Yoga significantly accelerated opioid withdrawal recovery in a clinical trial.
Participants with yoga showed 4.4 times faster withdrawal stabilisation.
Yoga improved heart rate variability, anxiety, sleep, and pain measures.
Opioid withdrawal involves sympathetic hyperactivity and reduced parasympathetic tone.
Researchers recommend integrating yoga into standard opioid withdrawal protocols.
- Who
- Researchers from NIMHANS, Bengaluru, and Harvard Medical School
- What
- Yoga's effectiveness in aiding opioid withdrawal recovery
- When
- Study conducted and published in JAMA Psychiatry
- Where
- India and the US
- Why
- To evaluate yoga as an adjuvant therapy for opioid withdrawal
- Study Participants
- 59 male participants with opioid use disorder
- Yoga Group
- 30 participants
- Control Group
- 29 participants
- Recovery Time
- 4.4 times faster with yoga
- Improvements
- Heart rate variability, anxiety, sleep, and pain
- Opioid Use Disorder Prevalence in India (2019)
- 2.1%
- Global Nonmedical Opioid Use (2022)
- 60 million people