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Randomized trial · measured the question itself

A 3-week trial in 141 stressed women found no clear difference between four approaches

Epel and colleagues · Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2025

Original title: A randomized controlled pilot trial of low and high arousal resilience interventions for depressive symptoms.

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

No difference

All four groups had less depression (15.93% reduction) and stress (9.70% reduction) with no group differences. In a later look at those who stuck with it, the cold shower group kept lower depression at 3 months (r = .17).

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
141 people · 141 women with high stress
What was tested
3 weeks of fast breathing with cold showers (Wim Hof Method), vs warm showers with slow breathing, mindfulness, or hard interval exercise
What it measured
The question itself: muscle recovery, mood and immune health
How long
3 weeks
Who has a stake
No disclosure in PubMed
No disclosure in PubMed; funded by three charitable foundations.
Journal
Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, 2025
Source
PubMed record 41309213. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Randomized: people were put into groups by chance, so the groups start out alike.
  • •Medium size: 141 people.
  • –Short: 3 weeks. Longer-term effects are unknown.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: muscle recovery, mood and immune health.
  • •The PubMed record has no conflict-of-interest statement.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: muscle recovery and mood

    8

    1 benefit, 1 mixed, 5 no difference, 1 harm

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    8

    2 benefit, 1 mixed, 4 no difference, 1 harm

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    3

    1 benefit, 2 no difference

  4. Population studies

    3

    2 benefit, 1 mixed

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does cold plunging help recovery and mood?”

Eases soreness a little; mood unproven.

Confidence: low. Based on 30 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 7 papers on the same step: 1 benefit, 1 mixed, 4 no difference, 1 harm. This one found no difference. It agrees with most of them.

Other papers on the same step

See all 30 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The two reads agreed on every checked field. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
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