Mind

Topics

• Exercise for mood

  Randomised trials across adult populations show that physical activity programmes improve symptom scores for low mood, anxiety and psychological distress, with consistent medium effects. Trials in adults whose depressive symptoms meet clinical cut-offs point the same way, though most were at risk of bias. Higher-intensity programmes were linked to larger changes, a single bout lifts mood in the short term, and active adults in cohort studies have lower risk of depression.

  • Energy
  • Mind

  6 claims

• Mindfulness programmes

  Structured mindfulness-based programmes, mostly group courses of around 8 weeks, produce small to moderate improvements in anxiety, low mood, distress and well-being scores in adults compared with taking no action, though effects vary by setting and they have not been shown to beat other active options such as exercise or other behavioural programmes. Trials and newer network meta-analyses suggest a modest benefit for self-reported sleep quality, including in older adults, with small effects for digital programmes. A minority of practitioners report unwanted effects such as anxiety or low mood, although in one digital programme trial such experiences were about as common in participants who did not meditate.

  • Mind
  • Sleep

  4 claims

• Purpose in life

  A sense of purpose in life, meaning having goals and a feeling that life is meaningful, is consistently associated in large cohort meta-analyses with lower risk of earlier death and of dementia and with fewer depressive symptoms, though these are observational associations that may partly reflect health behaviours, illness and mood. Randomised trials show that structured programmes, including brief and non-professional ones, can raise sense of meaning, with the most consistent evidence in adults living with cancer; whether raising purpose changes health outcomes has not been shown in trials.

  • Longevity
  • Mind

  5 claims

• Slow-paced breathing

  Slow-paced breathing, usually around six breaths a minute, consistently raises heart rate variability linked to parasympathetic activity. Trials of breathwork that is mostly slow-paced, and of heart rate variability biofeedback, show small to moderate reductions in self-reported stress, anxiety and low mood, but these trials carry risk of bias and vary widely. Few harms have been reported, though few trials looked for them.

  • Mind
  • Recovery

  5 claims

• Social connection

  Large meta-analyses of cohort studies link stronger social relationships with longer survival and link loneliness and social isolation with higher risks of early death, coronary heart disease, stroke and dementia, with associations comparable in size to well-established lifestyle risk factors. This evidence is observational, so it shows association rather than cause. Trials of interventions to reduce loneliness, particularly psychological approaches, show small to moderate benefits, but reviewers rate the certainty of that evidence low.

  • Longevity
  • Mind

  5 claims