PainRelief.com: What are the main findings?
Response: Our randomized clinical trial evaluated yoga as an adjunct to standard buprenorphine treatment in 59 male patients with opioid use disorder. Participants in the yoga group received 10 supervised 45-minute sessions over 14 days. The main findings showed that patients practicing yoga achieved withdrawal stabilization 4.4 times faster than controls (median 5 days vs. 9 days). They also demonstrated significant improvements in heart rate variability (a marker of autonomic regulation) along with notable reductions in anxiety, sleep latency (61-minute improvement), and pain perception. Mediation analysis confirmed that increases in parasympathetic activity accounted for 23% of the treatment effect of yoga.
PainRelief.com: What should readers take away from your report?
Response: The key message is that yoga may be a valuable add-on to standard opioid withdrawal treatment, not a replacement for medication. By incorporating mindfulness in asanas, slowing breathing, and relaxation techniques, yoga directly activates the parasympathetic nervous system and helps the body shift out of constant “stress mode” into a state that supports healing. For patients experiencing pain during withdrawal, this is particularly relevant as yoga addresses the neurobiological underpinnings of discomfort rather than merely masking symptoms.
PainRelief.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Response: Our next steps include testing whether the benefits of yoga persist beyond the withdrawal period, particularly in reducing relapse risk. We also want to study yoga in larger and more diverse populations (including women and individuals with varying withdrawal severity) examine optimal dosing (how much practice is needed for sustained benefit), and explore whether heart rate variability can serve as a biomarker to track recovery or predict relapse vulnerability. Additionally, replication across different opioid types, including fentanyl-dependent populations, and in diverse treatment settings is needed.
PainRelief.com: Is there anything else you would like to add? Any disclosures?
Response: This work was supported by the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance Fellowship (grant IA/CPHE/21/1/505978). The funder had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, or the decision to publish. No other conflicts of interest to disclose.
If confirmed in larger studies, structured yoga programs could be integrated into inpatient and residential addiction settings. The intervention is relatively simple to implement (45-minute sessions with trained instructors), and addresses a therapeutic gap that medications alone don’t fill. The potential economic benefits of shorter stabilization times could make this attractive to healthcare systems and support a case for including yoga-based interventions under insurance coverage.
Citation:
Goutham S, Bhargav H, Holla B, et al. Yoga for Opioid Withdrawal and Autonomic Regulation: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry. Published online January 07, 2026. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2025.3863
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Last Updated on January 8, 2026 by PainRelief.com