DISCUSSION

The present study assessed the benefits of yoga practice on schizophrenic patients. Polygraph assessments showed that the fluctuations in the skin resistance level reduced significantly after 4 months of practice. This was more marked at the end of 12 months. The significance of high fluctuations in the SR of schizophrenics has been interpreted differently. Hyper responding acutes were reported to have positive symptoms, whereas hypo responding was associated with negative symptoms, (Walsh and Roche 1979). Also, acutes with positive symptoms tend to overrespond, whereas chronics with negative symptoms were found to under respond (Zahen et al. 1981). It was noted in the present study that at the end of four months several hyporesponders showed a normal response whereas hyperresponders showed a reduced response. This was interpreted as a 'stabilising' effect. At the end of 12 months, 11 of the subjects could be assessed. Of the remaining some had left the home, others were unwell (unrelated ailments, e.g. common cold), and for technical reasons assessments were not possible in another 5 patients. This one year follow-up included mainly the hyper responders, who all showed a decrease in fluctuation value (FV).

Subjective assessments showed that initially many of the patients were enthusiastic about starting a novel program, though an equal number were suspicious and resisted the change in routine. Careful supervision and support was available for all the patients by the therapists of the home, continuously. In the initial phases (and upto 3 weeks) this was very necessary as the relaxation exercises with instructions about deep awareness, caused active introspection, in many patients. Most of them found the experience were revealing (giving them insights into their thoughts and feelings), but also very uncomfortable. Close support and supervision permitted the experiment to continue. After this initial 'stormy' period, the disturbances were fewer and overall, both the patients and the therapists felt a greater sense of calmness. It should also be remembered that the community home has an active therapeutic (holistic) program, and the other interventions would also have had a beneficial effect, thus making it difficult to study the effects of yoga in isolation, specially without a control group. In spite of this, the present results suggest that yoga - if practised with close supervision and support - have both objective and subjective benefits for schizophrenics.