Effects of Yoga Therapy in Rehabilitation Compared to Physiotherapy in Moderate Axial Spondyloarthritis (axSPA)

The term axial spondyloarthritis (axSPA) encompasses various inflammatory diseases of the spine, including ankylosing spondyloarthritis (AS) and non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (nr-axSPA).

axSPA is a chronic inflammatory joint disease affecting the axial skeleton. It is the second cause of chronic inflammatory rheumatism and affects 0.5 to 2% of the general population. It generally affects young adults, with a male predominance (2 men for 1 woman).

axSPA can lead to physical consequences (fatigue, pain, stiffness, with in particular serious damage to the spine causing functional impairment, etc.) and psychological consequences (anxiety, depression). It is responsible for a disability and a mediocre quality of life with, moreover, a significant socio-economic impact. In France, it is one of the long-term illnesses and may require heavy treatment.

The medicinal therapeutic side, taken care of by rheumatologists specializing in this pathology, has evolved a lot (from non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs [NSAIDs] to anti-tumor necrosis factor [anti-TNF] and anti-interleukin 17 [anti-IL 17]), allowing notable improvements. It is now a question of also developing the non-drug therapeutic side, to contribute to improving the quality of life, thus meeting the demand of patients with chronic diseases.

Information and therapeutic education occupy an important place, with results in favor of an improvement in the management of these diseases.

The recommendations emphasize that the non-pharmacological treatment of axSPA should include regular physical exercise, that individual and group physical therapy sessions should be considered as well as self-exercises.

Several randomized controlled trials have shown that physical therapy with various modalities has positive effects on pain and AS function. Physical therapy therefore also seems to play an important role in the management of patients. It prevents stiffness and improves functional capacity and quality of life.

Physical therapy should be initiated as soon as axSPA is diagnosed and regular exercise should form the basis of management. The review by Zochling et al. as well as a systematic review showed that exercises have positive effects on BASFI, BASDAI functions, pain and mobility. A Cochrane review on the role of physiotherapy interventions in SPA also concluded that physical therapy was beneficial. Physical activity, self-exercises and physiotherapy are part of the 2022 recommendations of the French Society of Rheumatology. Beneficial effects on disease activity were observed in axSPA, with good tolerance for intense exercise.

Recently an Indian team evaluated the effectiveness of online yogatherapy with 60 min structured modules on patients with axSPA for 3 months, with a significant improvement in the BASDAI score.