The Physiological And Psychological Effects Of Horticultural Therapy On Adolescent Depression

Objectives The study was to explore the effects of horticultural therapy on adolescent depression, and measure the changes of physiological index,such as heart rate(HR) and galvanic skin response(GSR) and psychological index, such as depression, behavioral inhibition system(BIS), behavioral activation system(BAS) and Connor-Davidson resilience scale(CD-RISC) score, it aimed to investigate the intervention effects of horticultural therapy on adolescent depression.Participates and Methods Seventy adolescents were recruited from six hundred undergraduates according to Beck Depression Inventory(BDI), and matched with the experimental group and the control group according to their age、gender and BDI scores, with 35 participates in each group. The experimental group received 8 weeks of horticultural therapy courses,and with no intervention for the control group. The two groups were invited to complete the initial assessment of GSR, HR, BDI, BIS,BAS and CD-RISC, with a test after two months when the experiment was finished. And the experimental group was also asked to fill in the questionnaire of experience for horticultural activities. The score differences in HR, GSR, BDI, BIS,BAS and CD-RISC were compared between the experimental group and the control group before and after the experiment. The main statistical methods are t test, chi square test, and so on.Results1、After experiment, the HR values of the experimental group were significantly higher(HR:t=9.21, P<0.001), and the GSR values were significantly lower(GSR:t=-2.59, P<0.05)than those which before experiment, while the Scores of HR and GSR in the control group were not significantly changed. After experiment, the HR values of the experimental group were significantly higher, and the GSR values were significantly lower than the scores of the control group(HR:t=5.01, P<0.001; GSR:t=-4.42,P<0.001).2、After experiment, the scores of BDI and BIS of experimental group were significantly lower, BAS and CD-RISC were significantly higher than those which before experiment(BDI:t=-6.34,P<0.001;BIS:t=-4.74,P<0.001; BAS: t=4.00,P<0.001;CD-RISC:t=5.31,P<0.001), while the Scores of the control group were not significantly changed. After experiment, compared with the scores of the control group,the scores of BDI and BIS of the experimental group were significantly lower(BDI: t=-3.56, P<0.01;BIS:t=-6.00,P<0.001), and the BAS and CD-RISC scores were significantly higher(BAS:t=2.66, P<0.05;CD-RISC:t=2.06, P<0.05).Conclusions Horticultural therapy can improve HR values and reduce GSR values of adolescents depression, which were correlated with sympathetic nerve system. It also reduce depression symptoms, BIS level and improve BAS and CD-RISC levels of adolescents depression. Therefore, group horticultural therapy had a significant effect on relieving adolescents depression.