Arts Successfully Fight Depression

Scientists in Norway have recently determined that exposure to art forms tend to have a very positive impact on the life of average individuals. The study concluded that people who go to see concerts, painting or sculpture exhibitions, visit art galleries, or make music tend to be a lot less depressed than other citizens, and to feel healthier overall. The research was conducted on an impressive batch of roughly 50,000 individuals, all of them from a single county in the middle of Norway.

The finds were especially valid in the case of those involved in making art, such as playing an instrument, singing, painting, sculpting and dancing. The individuals that were analyzed in the new investigation came from all socio-economic backgrounds, and were also very likely to represent different lifestyles, and so the study may be valid for the general population of Norway and beyond as well, AlphaGalileo reports.

The researchers used a variety of means to collect their data from all 48,289 participants. Among these methods they included interviews, questionnaires, clinical examination, the collection of blood and urine samples, as well as collecting detailed health profiles on a large part of the test participants.

“There is a positive relationship between cultural participation and self-perceived health for both women and men. For men, there is also a positive relationship between cultural participation and depression, in that there is less depression among men who participate in cultural activities, although this is not true for women,” says Nord-Trondelag Health Study (HUNT) researcher professor Jostein Holmen. He first presented the findings in late November in Stjordal, at a Norwegian health conference. The full results have not yet been published in a journal.

“To contribute to and to be involved with a positive cultural experience is extremely energizing. That it has now been documented more than ever before that the experience has such a positive effect on health ought to contribute to a greater focus on cultural experiences. We in the Trondheim Soloists always try to ensure that each concert provides a positive overall experience for people, and we work with the belief that what we are doing has a positive and healthy effect,” says Steinar Larsen.

He is the managing director of the renowned string orchestra Trondheim Soloists, which plays both in Norway and around the world. Holmen adds that, while a correlation was indeed found between arts and happiness, he cannot go as far as to say that culture can actually make people healthy. “We in the health services do not always have control over the most effective preventive tools given the range of today's illnesses. We need to increasingly focus on opportunities rather than on risk,” concludes HUNT director Steinar Krokstad, also an associate professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).