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Background: World statistics for the prevalence of anxiety and mood disorders shows that a great number of individuals will experience some type of anxiety or mood disorder at some point in their lifetime. Mind-body interventions such as Hatha Yoga and seated meditation have been used as a form of self-help therapy and it is especially useful for challenging occupations such as teachers and professors., Aims: In this investigation, we aimed at observing the impact of Yoga Nidra and seated meditation on the anxiety and depression levels of college professors., Materials and Methods: Sixty college professors, men and women, aged between 30 and 55 years were randomly allocated in one of the three experimental groups: Yoga Nidra , seated meditation, and control group. Professors were evaluated two times throughout the 3-month study period. Psychological variables included anxiety, stress, and depression., Results: Data analysis showed that the relaxation group presented better intragroup results in the anxiety levels. Meditation group presented better intragroup results only in the anxiety variable (physical component). Intergroup analysis showed that, except for the depression levels, both intervention groups presented better results than the control group in all other variables., Conclusions: Prepost results indicate that both interventions represent an effective therapeutic approach in reducing anxiety and stress levels. However, there was a tendency toward a greater effectiveness of the Yoga Nidra intervention regarding anxiety, which might represent an effective tool in reducing both cognitive and physiological symptoms of anxiety., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest.

The study aimed to assess the effects of a music therapy program on the level of stress for female professionals working in a private hospital in Rio de Janeiro-RJ, Brazil. Thirty four female volunteers with 33.3 ± 8.5 years of age from different levels of professional participated in the study. We used the Lipp's inventory of symptoms of stress for adults (ISSL) to evaluate the level of stress of participants before and after music therapy. The program consisted of twelve sessions using the techniques of music therapy Improvisation and Musical Re-creation held once a week with 50 minutes / session in a period of three months. The Wilcoxon test for repeated measures was used for statistical analysis. The study showed a statistically significant decrease (Δ = - 60%, p <0.001) in the level of stress professionals studied after the music therapy program. In conclusion, the present study that the music therapy program was effective in decrease the level of stress of women health professionals working in a private hospital in Rio de Janeiro-RJ, Brazil.