Background Mind–body medical interventions are commonly used to cope with depression and yoga is one of the most commonly used mind–body interventions. The aim of this review was to systematically assess and meta‐analyze the effectiveness of yoga for depression. Methods Medline/PubMed, Scopus, the Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, and IndMED were searched through January 2013. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of yoga for patients with depressive disorders and individuals with elevated levels of depression were included. Main outcomes were severity of depression and remission rates, secondary outcomes were anxiety, quality of life, and safety. Results Twelve RCTs with 619 participants were included. Three RCTs had low risk of bias. Regarding severity of depression, there was moderate evidence for short‐term effects of yoga compared to usual care (standardized mean difference (SMD) = −0.69; 95% confidence interval (CI) −0.99, −0.39; P < .001), and limited evidence compared to relaxation (SMD = −0.62; 95%CI −1.03, −0.22; P = .003), and aerobic exercise (SMD = −0.59; 95% CI −0.99, −0.18; P = .004). Limited evidence was found for short‐term effects of yoga on anxiety compared to relaxation (SMD = −0.79; 95% CI −1.3, −0.26; P = .004). Subgroup analyses revealed evidence for effects in patients with depressive disorders and in individuals with elevated levels of depression. Due to the paucity and heterogeneity of the RCTs, no meta‐analyses on long‐term effects were possible. No RCT reported safety data. Conclusions Despite methodological drawbacks of the included studies, yoga could be considered an ancillary treatment option for patients with depressive disorders and individuals with elevated levels of depression.

To systematically review and meta-analyze the effectiveness of yoga for low back pain. MEDLINE, the Cochrane Library, EMBASE, CAMBASE, and PsycINFO, were screened through January 2012. Randomized controlled trials comparing yoga to control conditions in patients with low back pain were included. Two authors independently assessed risk of bias using the risk of bias tool recommended by the Cochrane Back Review Group. Main outcome measures were pain, back-specific disability, generic disability, health-related quality of life, and global improvement. For each outcome, standardized mean differences (SMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Ten randomized controlled trials with a total of 967 chronic low back pain patients were included. Eight studies had low risk of bias. There was strong evidence for short-term effects on pain (SMD=-0.48; 95% CI, -0.65 to -0.31; P<0.01), back-specific disability (SMD=-0.59; 95% CI, -0.87 to -0.30; P<0.01), and global improvement (risk ratio=3.27; 95% CI, 1.89-5.66; P<0.01). There was strong evidence for a long-term effect on pain (SMD=-0.33; 95% CI, -0.59 to -0.07; P=0.01) and moderate evidence for a long-term effect on back-specific disability (SMD=-0.35; 95% CI, -0.55 to -0.15; P<0.01). There was no evidence for either short-term or long-term effects on health-related quality of life. Yoga was not associated with serious adverse events. This systematic review found strong evidence for short-term effectiveness and moderate evidence for long-term effectiveness of yoga for chronic low back pain in the most important patient-centered outcomes. Yoga can be recommended as an additional therapy to chronic low back pain patients.