Yoga Interventions Used for the Rehabilitation of Stroke, Parkinson’s Disease, and Multiple Sclerosis: A Scoping Review of Clinical Research.

The current body of literature was reviewed to compile and describe yoga interventions that have been applied in clinical research and neurologic rehabilitation settings with patients affected by stroke, Parkinson’s disease (PD), and multiple sclerosis (MS). Available literature on yoga therapy (YT) was mapped following a five-stage framework to identify key concepts, knowledge gaps, and evidence to inform practice. Publications were identified through Medline, CINAHL, EMBASE, and PsycINFO. Selected studies required subjects with a clinical diagnosis of stroke, PD, and MS to participate in a yoga intervention and have physical, cognitive, and/or psychosocial outcome measures assessed. A total of 50 studies were included in this review. Study characteristics, patient demographics, description of the yoga intervention, reported outcome measures and the main findings were extracted from the studies. Implementing YT in neurorehabilitation can help health care professionals integrate a more holistic approach that addresses the fundamental physical and psychological challenges of living with a chronic and debilitating neurologic disorder. The included studies described yogic interventions consisting of group or individual therapy sessions lasting 60-75 min that were carried out one to three times per week for 8-12 consecutive weeks across all three conditions. All studies described in this scoping review used different yoga protocols confirming the lack of specific interventional parameters available for implementing yoga into the rehabilitation of individuals affected by stroke, PD, or MS.