Yoga for Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

Introduction: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) affects between 10% and 20% of the global population. The therapeutic effect of yoga on IBS symptoms has been investigated by several randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with inconsistent findings. We conducted this review to synthesize the current evidence on yoga's effect on IBS symptoms.

Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed through systematically searching PubMed, EMBASE, WOS, SCOPUS, and Cochrane through October 2024. Continuous variables were pooled using the standardized mean difference (SMD), with confidence intervals (CIs) using Stata MP version 17. We assessed heterogeneity using the χ 2 test and I2 statistics. PROSPERO ID: CRD42024611633.

Results: Eleven RCTs with 535 patients were included. Seven RCTs included adults, 3 included pediatric or adolescent patients, and another included adolescents and young adults. The yoga intervention type varied among the included trials, with the program duration ranging from 6 weeks to 8 months and the session duration ranging from 40 to 90 minutes. There was no difference between yoga and control groups in alleviating the severity of gastrointestinal symptoms (SMD -0.66, with 95% CI -1.51 to 0.18, P = 0.12), anxiety (SMD -0.39, with 95% CI -0.85 to 0.06, P = 0.09), and depression (SMD -0.46, with 95% CI -1.15 to 0.22, P = 0.19) or improving quality of life (SMD 0.53, with 95% CI -0.38 to 1.44, P = 0.25).

Discussion: With uncertain evidence, yoga did not reduce the gastrointestinal severity of symptoms, anxiety, and depression or improve quality of life in patients with IBS. In light of the considerable methodological heterogeneity and the high risk of bias within the included RCTs, Yoga cannot be recommended as a treatment for IBS before conducting further large-scale RCTs to fill the current evidence gaps.