Climbing

Research records

Historical source snapshot. Not freshly verified, not a recommendation. Study findings, community accounts and app defaults are not interchangeable.

Publication suitability · 2026-10-15: Historical reference only; not a clinical verification. Clinical, regulatory, efficacy, safety and dose claims are not independently established by this review.

Climbing

Indoor or outdoor climbing, bouldering or roped, recorded by session.

Evidence category: Clinical study. This describes the source category, not approval or certainty.

Regulatory statement in source: Not separately recorded; do not infer approval from the evidence category.

A waitlist-controlled pilot trial tested an eight-week bouldering group program as a treatment for depression, integrating psychotherapeutic elements into indoor rock-climbing sessions without ropes. Participants who bouldered showed a significantly greater drop in depression scores than the waitlist group, an early signal that structured climbing sessions may support mood.

Benefits reported in the imported source

• The bouldering group showed a significantly larger drop in depression scores than the waitlist group in this pilot trial.
• The number needed to treat was four, meaning a meaningful benefit was attributable to the program for roughly one in four participants.
• The eight-week structure combined physical activity with group-based psychotherapeutic elements.

Risks and limits

• This was a pilot study with a modest sample of 47 participants, and the authors called for further research before drawing firm conclusions.
• The comparison group was a waitlist rather than an active control, which can inflate apparent effect sizes.
• Findings on bouldering as a depression treatment have not yet been replicated at scale.

Source bottom line: An early waitlist-controlled pilot trial found an eight-week bouldering group program linked with a significantly greater reduction in depression scores than no treatment, though replication in larger trials is still needed.

Uncertainty: Reference information only. Not medical advice.

Study protocols — reports, not instructions

Community and practice descriptions

Accounts of a practice are not evidence of safety or effectiveness. Words such as “standard”, “safe” or “recommended” describe the source account, not verified consensus or this wiki’s advice. Commercial and self-published citations are retained for traceability, not vendor endorsement or independent clinical corroboration.

Pharmacokinetic context

No half-life recorded in this source snapshot. No value has been inferred.

Source references

• Indoor rock climbing (bouldering) as a new treatment for depression: study design of a waitlist-controlled randomized group pilot study and the first results