Yoga may be able to help people with a range of mental health problems, including schizophrenia, according to a psychiatrist.
Professor Murali Doraiswamy, of Duke University Medical Center, North Carolina, USA, says the evidence on yoga is "highly promising".
Professor Doraiswamy has analysed more than 100 pieces of research into the study.
Writing in Frontiers in Psychiatry he says that 16 of these were of high quality and properly controlled.
However all the studies involved small numbers of patients, he reported.
Some studies found that yoga could influence the same body chemicals as psychotherapy and antidepressants, he reports.
Professor Doraiswamy said: "The search for improved treatments, including non-drug based, to meet the holistic needs of patients is of paramount importance and we call for more research into yoga as a global priority.
"If the promise of yoga on mental health was found in a drug, it would be the best selling medication world-wide."
Front. Psychiatry 25 January 2013 doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2012.00117
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