With more than 100 people dying from opioid overdoses each day in the U.S., new approaches to treating opioid-use disorders are needed. Emma Rose is leading a study that adds twice-weekly, mindfulness-based yoga to treatment plans for patients with opioid-use disorders in rural Pennsylvania.

The study divides participants who are receiving medication-assisted treatment in three clinics in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, into two groups, with one group taking two one-hour online yoga classes twice per week for 8 weeks, while the control group will walk for exercise for up to 2 hours per week.

Mindful yoga can impact brain systems that play an important role in the success of addiction treatment — including our brains’ abilities to regulate craving, to adapt to new or changing events, and to ignore distractions, Rose explains.

If this study yields promising results, it could lead to a larger study in which researchers use brain imaging to measure the impact of mindfulness practices on brain function in patients with opioid use disorders.