Yagna Pathy: a cost-effective, traditional low-intensity psychological intervention to manage Common Mental disorders: A cross-sectional pilot study

Abstract

Elements of Common Mental Disorders (CMD) like stress, depression and anxiety are significant contributors to the global burden of disease. Even though they affect people at all socioeconomic levels, most people in low-and middle-income nations lack access to efficient psychological and pharmaceutical interventions. One potential solution to this issue is the application of traditional low-intensity psychological interventions like Yagna Pathy. The current cross sectional pilot study includes a total of 426 heterogenous group of people suffering from Stress, Anxiety and Depression (both in normal and diseased range) received Yagna pathy for 30 days. The severity of the stress, anxiety and depression was evaluated using a validated depression, anxiety, and stress (DAS) score questionnaire. A significant association (chi square, p<0.001) was found between the metal disorders with gender and activity status of the participants. Strong inter-correlation (R 2 >0.7; p<0.001) among features of stress, anxiety and depression also proved the manifoldness of the CMD. Well directed Yagna pathy for a defined duration sustained to be efficient in controlling stress, anxiety, and depression as evident by comparing their DAS scores. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) of the responses was also found to be "excellent". Thus, with statistically accepted sample group the current study could prove the effectivity of traditional practices like Yagna Pathy in controlling the severity of CMD which could be easily implemented as a non-medicated, noninvasive, and cost-effective therapy worldwide.