The Inclusion of Yoga with Traditional Drug Addiction Treatment: A Systematic Review of the Evidence

Background: Drug addiction is an ever-increasing problem in the United States. Though many people seek treatment for their addiction, many return to their addiction post treatment exposing an inadequacy of current treatment methods. This research hypothesizes that the inclusion of yoga with traditional treatment of addiction benefits current treatment programs a form of complementary therapy.

Methods: Peer-reviewed journal articles within the past ten years were used in this systematic literature review. The articles were taken from the following databases: PubMed, ProQuest, and Science Direct.

Results: A total of 15 peer reviewed journal articles were included in this systematic review. Each article focused on yoga as treatment for drug addiction. Many of the articles cited positive associations between the inclusions of one or all disciplines of yoga with traditional treatments for drug addiction.

Conclusion: Yoga has shown to have positive effects in the treatment of drug addiction as a supportive tool to keep individuals from relapsing into substance abuse. Further research is required to confirm these results.