Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>Anxiety is common in young people with early psychosis and treatment options for this co‐morbidity remain limited. Yoga is a promising adjunct intervention that has been shown to reduce anxiety for adults with schizophrenia, therefore this pilot study evaluated the acceptability and potential effectiveness of yoga for anxiety in early psychosis.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>A prospective single arm pilot study of a yoga intervention was conducted within an Early Intervention for psychosis service. Rates of attendance, as well as symptoms of anxiety pre and post yoga session were measured.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>A total of 14 young people participated in the study and over 70% attended half or more of the yoga sessions offered. Significant transient reduction in state anxiety after a single session of yoga was observed (<jats:italic>p</jats:italic> < 0.01).</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>Yoga was found to be an acceptable and potentially effective adjunctive treatment for anxiety in early psychosis and the results warrant further clinical trials.</jats:p></jats:sec>