Horticultural therapy reduces stress levels in patients with anorexia nervosa: research from Pisa
Horticultural therapy helps reduce stress in patients with restrictive anorexia nervosa and improves body perception and emotional discomfort. The good news comes from a pilot study conducted by a group of experts from the Department of Agricultural, Food and Agro-environmental Sciences of the University of Pisa, the Institutes of Clinical Physiology (IFC) and of Information Science and Technologies “A. Faedo” (ISTI) of the National Research Council (Pisa), of the IRCCS Stella Maris Foundation and of the Child and Adolescent Rehabilitation Clinic “Gli orti di Ada” of Calambrone (Pisa).
Research published in the journal Nutrients involved a sample of adolescent girls diagnosed with restrictive anorexia nervosa and with a body mass index of less than 16 years. For twelve weeks, in addition to the conventional clinical treatment, the patients also followed a course of horticultural therapy which involved growing vegetables, ornamental and medicinal plants and characterizing their shapes, colors and smells. At the beginning and at the end of the treatment the girls received a psychiatric evaluation and they were administered an olfactory identification test to evaluate both the sensoriality related to smells and the induced stress. In particular, the latter was evaluated by the Cnr groups – the engineers Lucia Billeci And Alessandro Tonaci of the IFC-CNR e Sara Colantonio And Marie Antoinette Pascali of the ISTI-CNR – through the measurement of the heart rate parameters and its variability through a heart band, of the skin conductance, and through the thermal mapping of the face. The results were compared to those obtained from a group of patients subjected to conventional clinical treatment alone. Statistical analyzes of clinical and physiological variability thus showed that stress response levels improved over time only in the group that underwent horticultural therapy.
“At the end of the experience, the participants were awarded a ‘certificate of merit’ naming them ‘green thumbs’ – said the professor Christine Nali Professor of Plant Pathology at the University of Pisa – Engaging in the practice of caring for plants leads to relaxation of the mind and body and to take responsibility for the living beings we are cultivating. In this way, in addition to improving one’s health, it is also possible to learn the concept of temporal sequence, crop cycles and the seasonality of products”.
“Restrictive-type anorexia nervosa is a nutrition and eating disorder that leads to refusal to eat and maintain normal body weight, with persistent lack of recognition of the seriousness of underweight conditions and is the leading cause of death among mental disorders – they explain Olive Curzio of IFC-CNR, Sandra Teacher of the Clinic “Gli Orti di Ada” e Victor Belmonti by IRCCS Stella Maris – if, as is known, outdoor activities and in contact with nature have beneficial effects on the psychophysical well-being of all people, clinical studies are beginning to be known which demonstrate the positive effects of garden therapy on reducing stress levels even in psychiatric subjects.
Overall, the research team consisted of Sandra Maestro, Nicola Zannoni of the Child and Adolescent Rehabilitation Clinic “Gli Orti di Ada”; Vittorio Belmonti, Carlotta Francesca De Pasquale of the IRCCS Stella Maris Foundation; Lorenzo Cotrozzi, Cristina Nali, Francesca Venturi of the Department of Agricultural, Food and Agro-environmental Sciences of the University of Pisa; Lucia Billeci, Olivia Curzio, Maria-Aurora Morales, Alessandro Tonacci of the Institute of Clinical Physiology of the CNR; Sara Colantonio and Maria Antonietta Pascali of the Institute of Information Science and Technologies “A. Faedo” of the CNR.
Source: University of Pisa