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REVIEW article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1454992

Is Forest Bathing a Panacea for Mental Health Problems ?-A Narrative Review

Provisionally accepted
Hongxia Chen Hongxia Chen *Zhongji Meng Zhongji Meng Jie Luo Jie Luo *
  • Taihe Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The fast pace of modem life brings great pressure, which lead to physical and mental health issues. Researches have demonstrated that forest bathing can considerably alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety, eliminate negative emotions and promote mental well-being. We presented evidences of the positive impact of forest bathing on mental health in the context rapid urbanization and surging health needs in the post-pandemic era, and outlined the current insights into the related factors affecting the effect of forest bathing, as to provide directions for future interventions or research.The electronic databases PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase,Web of Science Core Collections and the China Academic Journals (CAJ) offered through the Full-text Database (CNKI) were searched for relevant studies published from the inception of the databases to December 2024. The initial search strategy was performed using keywords, MeSH terms, and free text words such as "forest bathing", "forest medicine", "mental health pressure", "anxiety", "depression", "cortisol", etc.The synthesis of the findings in the included studies revealed that forest bathing interventions might improve mental and physical health, reduce blood pressure, improve sleep quality and boost immunity, as well as alleviate depression, anxiety, and stress. Furthermore, the effect of forest bathing on mental health indicators and the differences in these results among different populations varied. Forest environment, tree species, exposure duration, season, composition and concentration of volatile organic compounds have an impact on the effect of forest bathing.Conclusions: Forest bathing were effective in lowering cortisol levels, reducing sympathetic nerve activity, as well as improving negative mood, which could serve as a non-pharmacological treatment for mental health in the general population.

    Keywords: Forest bathing, Pressure, Anxiety, Depression, cortisol, Mental Health

    Received: 04 Jul 2024; Accepted: 06 Feb 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Meng and Luo. 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) or licensor 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.

    * Correspondence:
    Hongxia Chen, Taihe Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, China
    Jie Luo, Taihe Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.