January 27, 2023
Going regularly to green spaces – parks, gardens – might help reduce the consumption of certain drugs such as antidepressants.
Many studies have already been carried out, giving green spaces a strong therapeutic power. But what are these virtues to be attributed to? To the frequency of visits to these parks, to the fact of living near these spaces, or even to the number of gardens present in a city?
It is to close the debate that Finnish researchers have looked at the impact of each of these facets of green spaces on the consumption of widely prescribed drugs: those to treat anxiety, insomnia, high blood pressure and asthma.
Forests, gardens… cemeteries
To do this, they relied on the responses of 16,000 randomly selected people in 3 Finnish cities: Espoo, Helsinki, and Vantaa. All these participants provided information on their possible use of medication, the time spent in green spaces (defined as forests, gardens, parks, meadows but also… cemeteries or zoos) over several months, if they saw these spaces from their windows, etc.
Result: the amount of green spaces or their proximity was not associated with a lower use of psychotropic drugs or products to regulate tension. However, the frequency of visits was. In detail, compared to those who never went there, going there 3 to 4 times a week would lower the probability of using medication for mental health by 33%, the probability of having recourse to blood pressure products and 26% for asthma medications.
For authors, “The accumulating scientific evidence supporting the health benefits of exposure to nature should increase the supply of green space in urban environments. »