Adding yoga to standard drug treatment dramatically sped up opioid withdrawal recovery in a new randomised trial at AIIMS New Delhi, published in JAMA Psychiatry. The study of 59 men aged 18 to 50 with mild-to-moderate opioid withdrawal found that 10 supervised 45-minute yoga sessions over 14 days cut the median stabilisation time from 9 days to 5 days — a 4.4-fold faster recovery.

Participants who did yoga alongside the standard medication buprenorphine also showed improved heart-rate variability, fell asleep about 61 minutes faster, and reported lower anxiety and pain. The researchers found that increased parasympathetic nervous system activity explained about 23% of the benefit, suggesting yoga calms the body’s stress response during withdrawal.

The trial has limits: all participants were men, it was conducted at a single centre, and most used tapentadol. Larger, more diverse trials are needed before yoga becomes a standard add-on. But for a condition where withdrawal keeps many from completing treatment, a low-cost, side-effect-free boost is a promising lead.