Short-Term Effects of Forest Therapy on Mood States: A Pilot Study

Immersion in forest environments was shown to produce beneficial effects to humanhealth, in particular psychophysical relaxation, leading to its growing recognition as a form ofintegrative medicine. However, limited evidence exists about the statistical significance of the effectsand their association with external and environmental variables and personal characteristics. Thisexperimental study aimed to substantiate the very concept of forest therapy by means of the analysisof the significance of its effects on the mood states of anxiety, depression, anger and confusion.Seven forest therapy sessions were performed in remote areas and a control one in an urban park,with participants allowed to attend only one session, resulting in 162 psychological self-assessmentquestionnaires administered before and after each session. Meteorological comfort, the concentrationof volatile organic compounds in the forest atmosphere and environmental coherence were identifiedas likely important external and environmental variables. Under certain conditions, forest therapysessions performed in remote sites were shown to outperform the control session, at least for anxiety,anger and confusion. A quantitative analysis of the association of the outcomes with personalsociodemographic characteristics revealed that only sporting habits and age were significantlyassociated with the outcomes for certain psychological domains.