For many people with depression, the best treatment involves a combination of therapy, lifestyle changes, and possibly medication. But there's a lot to consider—the lifestyle category alone is massive, for starters—making it easy to get overwhelmed. But the latest research offers a new lifestyle suggestion that might help—and be enjoyable: salsa dancing.
It seems random, but a new Psychological Medicine study found that taking up a salsa dance habit was associated with fewer symptoms of depression. It may also have the added benefit of easing symptoms of social anxiety, as well. This isn’t a prescriptive study suggesting salsa dancing as a replacement for therapy or medication, but if you're at least open to the idea, psychologists say it's worth considering.
Meet the experts: Brennan Delattre, lead study author, international partner dance instructor and psychological researcher at the University of Oxford; John Mayer, PhD, psychologist and author of Family Fit: Find Your Balance in Life; Thea Gallagher, PsyD, clinical associate professor at NYU Langone Health and co-host of the Mind in View podcast; and Hillary Ammon, PsyD, a clinical psychologist at the Center for Anxiety and Women’s Emotional Wellness For the randomized controlled trial, researchers consulted with a youth advisory group that included participants with depression and anxiety. Researchers screened everyone to see which dance style would be most appealing. From there, the scientists recruited 121 people between the ages of 18 and 24 who had mild to moderately severe symptoms of depression based on a screening questionnaire.
They were then randomly assigned to either an eight-week salsa dance class (which included regular attendees who weren't part of the study) or a waitlist control group. The waitlist group had to wait 12 weeks before they could take the dance class. During the study, participants completed several questionnaires about their mental health, while the researchers tracked changes in their levels of anxiety, social anxiety, and symptoms of depression.
Participants were also asked to rate their happiness daily on a scale of one to 10. After 12 weeks, the researchers found that those who were in the salsa group reported having lower symptoms of depression compared to those in the waitlist group. Specifically, on the Patient Health Questionnaire, a standard zero-to-27 depression questionnaire, the salsa group's total fell by an average of three points.
The waitlist group's total fell by less than one. This drop in the salsa dance group's total was considered clinically meaningful. Another added perk was that people in the salsa group had a steady decline in social anxiety over the study period.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
