Bratman Describes Science of Nature’s Effects on Psychological Health | NCCIH

Bratman Describes Science of Nature’s Effects on Psychological Health | NCCIH

Bratman Describes Science of Nature’s Effects on Psychological Health November 26, 2018 NCCIH Blog Team Contact with nature—whether outdoors or indoors (e.g., from plants or window views)—is an emerging field of research showing potential to help address some important public-health problems, said Gregory Bratman, Ph.D., in a recent lecture at NIH. His talk, “Nature Contact and Human Health: A Multimethod Approach,” was part of NCCIH’s Integrative Medicine Research Lecture Series and reflects the Center’s research interest in emotional well-being as an aspect of health promotion and disease prevention. The archived lecture is now available to view online. Dr. Bratman is an assistant professor and the Doug Walker Endowed Professor at the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington. The state of the evidence on nature experience (also called nature contact or nature exposure) shows promise as a therapeutic or preventive approach for a range of psychological and physical health challenges, he noted. Those benefits are in three interrelated domains—mental health, physical health, and general subjective well-being—with the amount and strength of evidence varying by topic. With several colleagues, he has developed and published a proposed research agenda for the field of nature contact and human health.

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