Proximity to City Forests Correlates With Fewer Depression Prescriptions

A Scottish study tracking over 129,000 people for five years found that moving within a 10-minute walk of a publicly accessible urban woodland reduced the odds of antidepressant prescriptions by 10 percent and anti-anxiety medications by 6 percent. The research evaluated the Woods In and Around Towns program, which has improved nearly 30,000 acres of green space in deprived neighborhoods since 2005. The findings, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, suggest modest investments in local green infrastructure can yield measurable mental health benefits.