The Effect of Yoga on Women with Postpartum Depression: A Meta-analysis

Postpartum depression (PPD) is a common psychological disorder among women after childbirth. As a mind-body practice, yoga has been proposed as a non-pharmacological intervention to alleviate symptoms of PPD. This review aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of yoga in reducing postpartum depression symptoms using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) by synthesizing evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs). A comprehensive search was conducted across multiple databases including Web of Science, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, PubMed, Google Scholar, CNKI, Wanfang, and VIP, from their inception to December 2023. Eligible studies were RCTs that assessed the efficacy of yoga on PPD with EPDS as the outcome measure. Two independent reviewers carried out study selection, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment. A meta-analysis using a random-effects model was performed. 6 RCTs were included, involving a total of 443 participants (222 in the yoga group and 221 in the control group). The results indicated that yoga significantly reduced EPDS scores compared with the control group (mean difference = -2.97, 95% confidence interval: -4.72 to -1.23, P < 0.00001), although substantial heterogeneity was observed (I² = 95%). These findings suggest that yoga can be an effective complementary therapy for relieving postpartum depression symptoms. However, the high heterogeneity underscores the need for further high-quality, large-scale RCTs to confirm these results. This review is registered with PROSPERO (CRD42023449120).