# After one hour in the Mediterranean, 176 scuba divers and 70 beachgoers reported brighter moods, with the strongest gains among people taking medication for chronic or psychiatric conditions

> Cap de Creus became a one-hour mental health test Researchers at the University of Girona used a busy stretch of the Cap de Creus Natural Park in northeastern Spain to test a simple question. Could a short session in a protected coastal...

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Byline: ARGO.net Editorial Team
Published: 2026-08-05T07:30:02+00:00
Categories: Explainer, Humans

![Two scuba divers exploring the vibrant underwater world off Zanzibar's coast in Tanzania](https://www.argo.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/scuba_divers_underwater.jpg)

## Cap de Creus became a one-hour mental health test

**Researchers at the University of Girona** used a busy stretch of the [Cap de Creus Natural Park](https://www.spain.info/en/nature/cap-creus-natural-park/) in northeastern Spain to test a simple question. Could a short session in a protected coastal setting improve mood and would a dive change that effect? Their answer, published in the [*International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health*](https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/7238), came from a direct before-and-after comparison of **176 scuba divers** and **70 beach users** who spent about one hour in the same marine landscape.

The team worked across the summers of 2018 and 2019 in and around the marine protected waters of Cap de Creus, a rugged Mediterranean headland known for dense marine life and heavy recreational use. According to [Catalonia tourism officials](https://www.catalunya.com/en/continguts/patrimoni-natural/cap-de-creus-natural-park-17-17001-573533), the park protects both land and sea, which made it a useful setting for comparing people who entered the water with people who stayed beside it. Each participant filled out a mood questionnaire before the activity and another roughly an hour later.

Instead of asking for a vague impression, the researchers used a **29-item Profile of Mood States questionnaire**, a shortened version of a widely used measure of tension, depression, anger, fatigue and vigor. The study paper also tracked sleep from the previous night, age, sex, children under 18, sea views at home, sense of safety, discomfort from pollution and regular medication use. That design gave the team a way to compare mood change while accounting for several factors that might otherwise blur the result.

## Both the beach and the dive lowered distress scores

**Both groups improved** after their hour by the sea. In the paper's scoring system, a lower total **POMS score** meant less psychological distress. Beach users moved from an average of 98.6 before the activity to 97.1 after it, while scuba divers moved from 95.1 to 93.2. The divers also finished with lower average anger, depression and fatigue scores than the beach group.

The improvement did not mean scuba diving clearly outperformed beach time in the formal models. After statistical adjustment, the researchers found no significant difference between the beach activity and either of the two diving formats they defined. That result matters because it shifts the main message away from a simple contest between beach towels and air tanks. The stronger pattern was that **short exposure to a Mediterranean blue space** was linked with better mood in both groups.

That broader pattern fits a larger body of work on [green and blue spaces and mental health](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK597114/). Public health researchers have been building evidence that natural settings near water can support stress recovery, social contact and light physical activity. This diving study added a more direct test of being in the water rather than only living near it or walking beside it.

## Medication users showed the clearest extra shift

The most interesting signal in the study came from a small subgroup. Participants who reported **regular medication intake** for chronic or psychiatric illness showed a significantly larger drop in their total distress score than other participants. In the adjusted model, medication use was linked with a lower post-activity total POMS score and with higher vigor after the hour at the coast.

The paper did not present this as proof that scuba diving or beach visits act like treatment. The medication category included a mixed set of conditions and drugs, from anti-depressants to anti-inflammatories and kidney protectors and the group itself was small. Even so, the result stands out because it suggests that people managing ongoing health conditions may have been especially responsive to this short coastal exposure.

[Divers Alert Network](https://dan.org/health-medicine/health-resources/diseases-conditions/psychiatric-conditions-and-diving/) notes that mental health conditions and medication use still require individual safety judgment before diving, particularly when alertness or decision-making could be affected. The Girona study did not overturn that caution. What it did show is that, within this recreational sample, the biggest psychological shift after the activity appeared in participants already managing longer-term health issues.

## The diving style changed the ecosystem logic more than the mood result

The researchers also divided divers into two experience types. **Diving experience A** required smaller groups of 15 or fewer and included at least one other low-impact feature, either diving with an instructor or receiving a fuller pre-dive briefing. **Diving experience B** represented the less controlled setup, often with bigger groups, less guidance, or briefer briefings.

That distinction came from environmental research rather than from sport psychology alone. Previous studies have shown that crowded recreational dives can damage fragile marine communities such as corals, gorgonians and other benthic organisms. The authors wanted to know whether the calmer, more guided format might also produce a cleaner mental health effect for people underwater.

It did not, at least not strongly enough to survive the statistical tests. Group A began with somewhat higher tension before the activity, yet both diving groups finished with almost the same total mood score after the dive. In other words, the more eco-friendly format remained important for the reef and for management decisions, but this study did not find a clear extra psychological bonus from that format during a single one-hour session.

## Why the result is useful and why it stays modest

**The study was practical rather than clinical**. People were measured in a real tourism setting, not in a laboratory and that gives the finding a kind of everyday credibility. An hour on the beach or in the water is a realistic choice during a coastal trip. The tradeoff is that the study could capture short-term mood movement, while leaving bigger questions unresolved, including whether the effect lasts beyond the same day or changes with repeated visits.

Several limits also keep the headline grounded. The sample was observational, the beach group and diving group differed in age and sex balance and only a small share of participants reported regular medication use. The authors also had to predict some missing age values statistically. Those details narrow the claim. The paper supports a short-term association between coastal recreation and better mood rather than a prescription for mental health care.

What remains valuable is the combination of scale and setting. Earlier diving papers often involved small therapeutic programs or narrow special populations. This study looked at hundreds of ordinary coastal visitors in a protected Mediterranean site and found that one hour was enough to register a measurable shift in distress scores. For readers interested in how everyday contact with the sea affects the mind, that is a concrete result and it came with a useful reminder that the same coast can support human wellbeing while still demanding careful protection.