A new study found that taking long walks in countryside could help alleviate symptoms of depression.

Mind, the leading mental health charity in UK, argues that instead of relying solely on drugs people should also receive ecotherapy.

This "green treatment" involves walking, kite-flying and gardening and should be recognised as a clinically-valid frontline treatment for mental health problems, Mind claims.

The study titled, "Ecotherapy: the Green Agenda for Mental Health," is the first one to examine the effects of the so-called green exercise in maintaining mental health. Researchers at the University of Essex studied the effect of walking on 20 members of the charity.

The members were randomly assigned to walk for 30 minutes in a country park or in indoor shopping center. After a walk in the country, some 90 percent said they felt a rise in their self-esteem, while 71 percent said they felt less tense and depressed.

Participants who were assigned for the shopping centre walk were not as successful. Only 45 percent said there was a decrease in depression, while 22 percent said they actually felt more depressed.

Mind's chief executive Paul Farmer said that ecotherapy should not replace drugs, but the debate on its use "needs to be broadened."

The charity also called for care farms, where patients are prescribed agricultural work, to be introduced as a treatment for mental distress.

"Mind sees ecotherapy as an important part of the future for mental health. It's a credible, clinically-valid treatment option and needs to be prescribed by GPs, especially when for many people access to treatments other than antidepressants is extremely limited," Farmer said.

"Hundreds of people have benefited from the green projects run by our local Mind associations but if prescribing ecotherapy was part of mainstream practice it could potentially help the millions of people across the country who are affected by mental distress."

Source:Xinhua/Agencies