O Yoga como prática complementar no tratamento de transtornos alimentares

Abstract

The etiology of eating disorders involves biological, psychological and sociocultural aspects. Thus, it is important that their treatment consider a multidimensional approach and, in this direction, Yoga is a technique that has received attention from researchers and professionals who attend this population. The present study evaluated the effect of the practice of Yoga, with a 10 weeks intervention, on psychological aspects, body image, eating behavior and mindfulness skills in patients who received support at Eating Disorders Clinic at Hospital de Clínicas of Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (HC-UFU). For this, a semi-structured interview and the following instruments were used: WHOQOL-bref; Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20); Subjective Wellbeing Scale (EBES); Scale of Silhouettes for Adults; Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26); Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ); Mindfulness Awareness and Attention Scale (MAAS); and the Five Facets of Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ-BR). The instruments were applied before the beginning of the intervention (stage 1), after 5 sessions (stage 2), at the end of the intervention (stage 3) and ten weeks after the end of the intervention (follow-up, stage 4). The results indicated that the intervention with Yoga promoted changes in aspects of quality of life, attention and emotion regulation, mainly between stage 1 and stage 3, but these effects were not maintained in stage 4. Most of the differences observed between the stages were not statistically significant. To beyond the statistical significance, the results were discussed in terms of their practical meaning, indicating the potential of Yoga practice as a complementary treatment for eating disorders.