Study Finds Yoga Speeds Recovery and Eases Symptoms in Opioid Withdrawal

Jan 2026 : Yoga can significantly aid recovery in people undergoing opioid withdrawal by reducing physical discomfort and improving anxiety, sleep, and pain levels, according to a new scientific study. The findings suggest that yoga could play an important supportive role when combined with standard medical treatment for opioid dependence.

Opioid withdrawal is marked by a wide range of distressing physical and psychological symptoms. These include diarrhoea, fever, body pain, insomnia, anxiety, and depression, along with autonomic symptoms such as dilated pupils, sweating, goosebumps, nausea, vomiting, yawning, loss of appetite, and a runny nose. These reactions occur due to excessive activation of the sympathetic nervous system, triggered by disrupted noradrenergic regulation in the body.

The study, conducted by researchers from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, in collaboration with experts from Harvard Medical School in the United States, highlights yoga as a neurobiologically grounded intervention rather than a purely complementary practice. The researchers argue that yoga addresses deeper regulatory imbalances in the nervous system that are not fully corrected by conventional medication alone.

Opioid use disorder (OUD) remains a serious global public health concern. It is characterised by compulsive opioid use despite harmful physical, psychological, and social consequences. Globally, an estimated 60 million people used opioids nonmedically in 2022, yet treatment access remains limited, with only about one in eleven individuals with drug use disorders receiving adequate care. In India, a national survey conducted in 2019 found that approximately 2.1 per cent of the population reported opioid use.

One of the key challenges in treating opioid withdrawal is autonomic dysregulation. Patients typically experience heightened sympathetic activity and reduced parasympathetic tone, leaving them vulnerable to severe discomfort and relapse. Standard pharmacological treatments, while effective in managing certain symptoms, often fail to restore this autonomic balance fully.

To examine whether yoga could bridge this gap, the research team carried out a randomised clinical trial involving 59 male participants diagnosed with opioid use disorder. Of these, 30 participants received yoga therapy in addition to standard buprenorphine treatment, while 29 participants received only standard medical care.

The results were striking. Participants who practised yoga alongside medication achieved withdrawal stabilisation 4.4 times faster than those in the control group. They also demonstrated significant improvements in heart rate variability, an indicator of healthier autonomic function, as well as notable reductions in anxiety, sleep disturbances, and pain levels.

The researchers observed that yoga not only reduced withdrawal symptoms but also appeared to restore core physiological and psychological regulatory processes. By enhancing parasympathetic activity, yoga helped counter the stress-driven autonomic imbalance commonly seen during opioid withdrawal.

The study concludes that integrating yoga into opioid withdrawal protocols could offer a safe, cost-effective, and biologically informed approach to improving recovery outcomes. Beyond symptom relief, yoga may strengthen resilience during the critical withdrawal phase, potentially reducing relapse risk and improving long-term treatment success.

(The content of this article is sourced from a news agency and has not been edited by the Mavericknews30 team.)