If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a natural high… daily dose of nature does your mental health a world of good
Scottish researchers have produced the first large-scale evidence that improving woodland areas near towns genuinely reduces the need for antidepressant and anti-anxiety medication, particularly in deprived urban communities. The study, from the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, matters because it moves beyond anecdotal claims about nature's benefits to hard prescribing data, strengthening the case for using green space investment as a public health tool that could also help narrow health inequalities.
The team, whose work was published in The Lancet Planetary Health, analysed NHS prescription and census records for more than 129,000 people over five years. They found that residents of deprived areas living within a ten-minute walk of a woodland that had been made more welcoming and accessible were 10% less likely to be prescribed antidepressants and 6% less likely to be prescribed anti-anxiety medication, even after accounting for demographics and poverty. Researchers, including Professor Catharine Ward Thompson and Dr Scott Ogletree, linked the findings to Scottish Forestry's Woods In and Around Towns programme and are urging policymakers to integrate nature-based initiatives into public health strategy, with the Scottish Government reaffirming a target of creating 18,000 hectares of woodland annually by 2029/30.
- Nearby improved woodland cuts antidepressant and anxiety medication use
- Study tracked 129,000+ people over five years using NHS data
- Findings support using green space investment to reduce health inequalities
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Woodland close to where people live has long been linked to better mental health, but most of the evidence for this has come from small studies or people's own accounts rather than hard medical data. This new research, carried out by teams at the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, set out to test that link more rigorously by looking at actual NHS prescribing records rather than surveys or self-reported wellbeing.
The study forms part of a wider push in Scotland to treat green space as a matter of public health rather than simply amenity or leisure. It draws on Scottish Forestry's Woods In and Around Towns programme, which has been working to make woodland near urban areas more accessible and welcoming, and comes as the Scottish Government has committed to creating 18,000 hectares of new woodland every year up to 2029/30.
The findings are particularly relevant to discussions about health inequalities, since deprived urban communities tend to have poorer mental health outcomes and less access to good-quality green space. Antidepressant and anti-anxiety prescribing rates are commonly used by researchers as a measurable indicator of a population's mental health needs, which is why they form the basis of this study.
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