Dr B N Gangadhar, Scientist Chair, Department of Ayush, delivering the Prof. B. K. Bachhawat Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award Lecture at the 43rd Annual Meeting of Indian Academy of Neurosciences, hosted by Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (BRIC-RGCB), in Kovalam, Thiruvananthapuram on October 29.

 Highlighting that yoga can be leveraged in the treatment of mental disorders, Dr B N Gangadhar, Scientist Chair, Department of Ayush, said evidence-based integration of yoga is possible in country’s clinical practice. 

 Dr Gangadhar was delivering the Prof B K Bachhawat Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award Lecture at the four-day 43rd Annual Meeting of Indian Academy of Neurosciences (IAN), organised by Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (BRIC-RGCB), from October 29 in Thiruvananthapuram.

 Speaking on ‘Neurobiological Evidence for Yoga in Depression’, he highlighted the need to develop a curriculum for training and advance research on the benefits of yoga in the treatment of mental disorders like depression and schizophrenia.

 “It is vital to integrate and mainstream yoga in psychiatry service,” he pointed out. 

 Dr Gangadhar, also former director of NIMHANS, Bengaluru, laid stress on need for extending yoga biology research to other disorders.

He said most patients obtained a drop in cortisol by doing yoga along with medication. “Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels are low in depression and regular practice of yoga helps rise in plasma BDNF levels,” he said. 

 In her keynote address on ‘Brain Mosaicism in Epilepsy and Cortical Malformations,’ Dr Stéphanie Baulac of Paris Brain Institute (ICM), France, gave a detailed presentation on the novel detection methods for brain somatic mutations (DNA sequence changes that occur after conception) in epilepsy.

 Experts from leading institutions from India and abroad are presenting papers at the event.