One immediately began the intervention, while the other group had to wait to start bouldering, which involves climbing rocks or walls to a moderate height without ropes or a harness. After eight weeks, the groups switched out and the originally waitlisted group went through the same process. The research team measured the depression of group members at different points in the study using the Beck's Depression Inventory and the depression subscale of the Symptom Check List Revised, known as SCL-90-R. The researchers found that the group that immediately began the rock climbing training improved their scores on the Beck Depression Inventory by 6.27 points, while the waitlisted participants only improved by 1.4 points as they waited for their own session to begin. "There are different routes for your physical activity level, and there's a social aspect along with the feeling of an immediate accomplishment when bouldering." In a recent study presented at the Association for Psychological Science Convention, a team of American and German psychologists argue that bouldering can be used as a psychotherapeutic intervention. While some German psychiatric hospitals already use rock climbing as therapy, this study is the evidence that it is actually a successful treatment: The team explains in BMC Psychiatry that climbing resulted in their study participants improving from being severely depressed to demonstrating “moderate to mild depression levels.” 
 
 “I hope this study and future studies are able to impact a life,” study co-author Eva-Maria Stelzer, a researcher at the University of Arizona, said in a statement. "Depression is a severe illness. It is one of the most common mental disorders in the United States and worldwide. Even though a variety of treatment options exist, less than one-third of people receive treatment for their symptoms.” 
 
 A total of 47 participants participated in this study and were split into two groups. The National Institute of Mental Health reports that anxiety disorders, including depression, are the most common mental illnesses in the U.S. About 18 percent of the nation's adult population, or about 40 million people, cope with anxiety disorders. "Bouldering not only has strong mental components, but it is accessible at different levels so that people of all levels of physical health are able to participate," she said, adding that because many people who are depressed deal with isolation, bouldering as a treatment could bolster physical activity and be used as a social tool allowing people to interact with one another. Said Luttenberger: "I'd always encourage patients to do the sport they like — may it be climbing or something else — as sport is a wonderful possibility to prevent all possible sorts of illnesses, mental and physical."
– Heading out for a weekend climb or scaling the rock wall at the gym may be good therapy for treating depression, new research shows. A University of Arizona study found that a form of rock climbing eased depression symptoms in participants from moderate to mild levels after eight weeks, Inverse reports. The sport, also known as bouldering, which doesn't use ropes or harnesses, combines physicality and self-sufficiency, both of which have been shown to be beneficial in combatting depression, researchers say. "You have to be mindful and focused on the moment," lead author Eva-Maria Stelzer says. The sport "does not leave much room to let your mind wonder on things that may be going on in your life—you have to focus on not falling." Researchers divided more than 100 people in Germany diagnosed with depression, or who received low scores on a depression on a WHO depression scale, into two groups, the first of which immediately began climbing rocks or walls at a moderate height for three hours a week. Most were new to the sport. Over eight weeks, early participants showed a 6.27-point improvement in their score, while those in the second group who didn't climb saw a boost of just 1.4 points. When the sedentary group got the green light to climb in a second trial, their scores increased as well. Some German hospitals are using bouldering to treat depression, Inverse notes. Stelzer says bouldering could be a useful treatment in the US, where some 40 million American adults suffer from anxiety disorders. (An attention-boosting app may help with depression.)