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SKY Breath Intervention

NCT05388110 · Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING · Type: OBSERVATIONAL · Enrollment: 60

Last updated 2025-05-15

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Depression is highly debilitating and prevalent among adolescents. Adolescent-onset depression is associated with long, severe, and recurrent episodes that are often not responsive to treatment. There is a dire need to develop novel treatments that are efficient, cost-effective, and tolerant for this population. Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY) is a breath-based meditative practice that entails a sequence of specific breathing techniques to help practitioners achieve a state of calm alertness. It has offered benefits as a therapeutic option for mild-to-moderate depression and anxiety disorders and as an adjunctive treatment in patients with major depressive disorder, but the neurological mechanism of SKY breath intervention is still not fully understood.

The goal of this study is to determine the efficacy of SKY breath intervention in treating depressed adolescents and to understand its mechanisms. In this study, thirty depressed adolescents and thirty healthy controls will be recruited to evaluate the efficacy of the 8-week SKY intervention. Assessment for depression and anxiety, salivary cortisol, resting heart rate, blood pressure, and neuroimaging will be collected at the baseline, 4 weeks into SKY intervention (questionnaires only), and post-intervention.

This will be the first study to evaluate the potential benefits of of SKY breath intervention as a treatment option for depressed adolescents.

Conditions

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

SKY Breath Intervention

Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY) is a breath-based meditative practice that entails a sequence of specific breathing techniques to help practitioners achieve a state of calm alertness. It has offered benefits as a therapeutic option for mild-to-moderate depression and anxiety disorders and as an adjunctive treatment in patients with major depressive disorder, but the neurological mechanism of SKY breath intervention is still not fully understood.

Sponsors & Collaborators

Principal Investigators

  • Yan Li, PhD · University of California, San Francisco

Eligibility

Min Age
16 Years
Max Age
24 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2022-04-22
Primary Completion
2028-04-30
Completion
2028-12-31

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT05388110 on ClinicalTrials.gov