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The Potential for Outdoor Nature-Based Interventions in the Treatment and Prevention of Depression
There is growing interest in nature-based interventions (NBI) to improve human health and wellbeing. An important nascent area is exploring the potential of outdoor therapies to treat and prevent common mental health problems like depression. In this conceptual analysis on the nature–depression nexu...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8984301/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35401311 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.740210 |
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author | Owens, Matthew Bunce, Hannah L. I. |
author_facet | Owens, Matthew Bunce, Hannah L. I. |
author_sort | Owens, Matthew |
collection | PubMed |
description | There is growing interest in nature-based interventions (NBI) to improve human health and wellbeing. An important nascent area is exploring the potential of outdoor therapies to treat and prevent common mental health problems like depression. In this conceptual analysis on the nature–depression nexus, we distil some of the main issues for consideration when NBIs for depression are being developed. We argue that understanding the mechanisms, or ‘active ingredients’ in NBIs is crucial to understand what works and for whom. Successfully identifying modifiable mediating intervention targets will pave the way for interventions with increased efficacy. We highlight a non-exhaustive list of five clinically relevant putative, candidate mechanisms which may underly the beneficial effects of NBIs on depression: stress, rumination, mindfulness, sleep and exercise. We also make the case that when developing NBIs it is important to not neglect young people, explore personalised approaches and focus on both treatment and prevention approaches. To achieve these aims methodologically rigorous programmes of clinical research are needed that include well-powered and controlled experimental designs including randomised controlled trials, qualitative research, longitudinal studies and large prospective cohorts. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8984301 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-89843012022-04-07 The Potential for Outdoor Nature-Based Interventions in the Treatment and Prevention of Depression Owens, Matthew Bunce, Hannah L. I. Front Psychol Psychology There is growing interest in nature-based interventions (NBI) to improve human health and wellbeing. An important nascent area is exploring the potential of outdoor therapies to treat and prevent common mental health problems like depression. In this conceptual analysis on the nature–depression nexus, we distil some of the main issues for consideration when NBIs for depression are being developed. We argue that understanding the mechanisms, or ‘active ingredients’ in NBIs is crucial to understand what works and for whom. Successfully identifying modifiable mediating intervention targets will pave the way for interventions with increased efficacy. We highlight a non-exhaustive list of five clinically relevant putative, candidate mechanisms which may underly the beneficial effects of NBIs on depression: stress, rumination, mindfulness, sleep and exercise. We also make the case that when developing NBIs it is important to not neglect young people, explore personalised approaches and focus on both treatment and prevention approaches. To achieve these aims methodologically rigorous programmes of clinical research are needed that include well-powered and controlled experimental designs including randomised controlled trials, qualitative research, longitudinal studies and large prospective cohorts. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-03-23 /pmc/articles/PMC8984301/ /pubmed/35401311 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.740210 Text en Copyright © 2022 Owens and Bunce. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychology Owens, Matthew Bunce, Hannah L. I. The Potential for Outdoor Nature-Based Interventions in the Treatment and Prevention of Depression |
title | The Potential for Outdoor Nature-Based Interventions in the Treatment and Prevention of Depression |
title_full | The Potential for Outdoor Nature-Based Interventions in the Treatment and Prevention of Depression |
title_fullStr | The Potential for Outdoor Nature-Based Interventions in the Treatment and Prevention of Depression |
title_full_unstemmed | The Potential for Outdoor Nature-Based Interventions in the Treatment and Prevention of Depression |
title_short | The Potential for Outdoor Nature-Based Interventions in the Treatment and Prevention of Depression |
title_sort | potential for outdoor nature-based interventions in the treatment and prevention of depression |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8984301/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35401311 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.740210 |
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