Dance can Treat Teen Depression and Boost Mental Health

Engaging in regular dancing can prepare teens to encounter and overcome their daily challenges and strengthen their mental health, a new study says. 

Anna Duberg, a physical therapist at Örebro University Hospital and colleagues found regular dance sessions helping to eliminate depression, stress, fatigue and headaches in young girls.

To analyze the power of dance in treating depression, the researchers looked at 112 Swedish girls aged between 13 and 19. All the participants had earlier reported experiencing problems like anxiety, depression, fatigue, headaches, and back, neck and shoulder pain.

Of the total participants, 59 girls participated in dancing programs twice a week, and 53 continued to follow their regular lifestyle.

Proving the theory, researchers found all the teen girls in the dance group benefiting from the dance sessions. These girls were found to have higher self-esteem compared to the control group.

"The dance intervention group improved their self-rated health more than the control group at all follow-ups," the authors wrote.

"An 8-month dance intervention can improve self-rated health for adolescent girls with internalizing problems. The improvement remained a year after the intervention," they concluded.

The study is published in the journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (JAMA).

Following are some of the health benefits of dance, provided by the website Health Guidance:

• Strengthens lung, heart and body muscles
• Enhances physical confidence, functionality of mind and nervous system
• Boosts self-esteem and confidence
• Helps in losing weight

Teenagers are usually haunted by a series of problems related to academic performance, popularity among peers, parental divorce, alcoholism or mental illness. These problems can affect their mental health and leads to many serious emotional problems.

Following are a list of symptoms and mental illness affecting teenagers provided by the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry:

• Alcohol and drug abuse
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
• Bipolar disorder
• Conduct disorder
• Learning disorder
• Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
• Sexual abuse
• Suicide

According to the health experts, parents and teachers should identify symptoms associated with these disorders and provide an early intervention.