Many people have been enduring heat wave after heat wave
this summer. While there is no denying that extreme heat and humidity can be
physically uncomfortable, research suggests that such conditions can be trying
on your psychological well-being, too.
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“We see across the whole spectrum of mental health” that heat
extremes are damaging to mental well-being, said Nick Obradovich, a
computational social scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human
Development and co-author of a 2018 study that analyzed the mental health risks
of climate change.
Studies have found links between rising temperatures and a range
of mental health issues, including mental fatigue, aggression, and even higher
rates of suicide. This connection is not just limited to surges in temperature,
Obradovich said, it is also present for people living in climates where it is
consistently hot. (Although of course mental health trends can depend on a
variety of factors outside of temperature, too.)
Scientists have yet to uncover why this may be and whether heat
itself can cause brain changes that may lead to these effects. But regardless,
experts say, it’s clear that oppressive heat is linked with worse mental
health.
What the research says
Evidence suggests that “temperature extremes can influence
everything from your day-to-day mood all the way up to your probability of
experiencing an acute mental health crisis,” Obradovich said.
One study published in JAMA Psychiatry in February, for
instance, scrutinized the medical records of more than 2.2 million adults who
visited emergency departments from 2,775 counties across the US between 2010
and 2019. The authors found that there were about 8 percent more emergency
department visits for mental health concerns on the hottest days of summer than
there were on the coolest days. Emergency visits for issues like self-harm, as
well as for substance use, anxiety, mood, and schizophrenia disorders, all rose
consistently in proportion with the temperature.
This trend is “fairly uniform for both men and women, for adults
of all ages, and for people living in all parts of the US,” said Amruta
Nori-Sarma, an environmental health scientist at the Boston University School
of Public Health and an author of the study.
Other research has also found that higher temperatures may
temporarily trigger relapses in people with bipolar disorder and that higher
sunlight exposures could increase the risk of manic episodes. Higher
temperatures have also been associated with deaths among people with
schizophrenia and other mental health conditions.
Survey data from 1.9 million Americans between 2008 and 2013
found that on days when temperatures exceeded 70 degrees, respondents were more
likely to feel reduced joy and happiness, as well as increased stress, anger,
and fatigue, than they were on days when temperatures were between 50 and 60
degrees. These associations were especially strong when temperatures were above
90 degrees, the authors noted.
What is going on in the body?
“When we’re not comfortable, we’re not at our best,” said C
Munro Cullum, a clinical neuropsychologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center,
in Dallas. The discomfort of heat, and the energy it takes for the body to cool
down, can lower overall resilience. So agitation, irritation, and pain become
less bearable, he said.
Our bodies are also used to a certain baseline level of stress,
said Dr Martin Paulus, scientific director and president of the Laureate
Institute for Brain Research in
Tulsa, Oklahoma, who worked with Obradovich on
his 2018 study. When the body attempts to regulate its temperature during a
heat wave, he said, it adds additional strain and results in more stress and
inflammation. People with preexisting mental health conditions may be
especially vulnerable to the added heat stress, which can push their symptoms
over the top, he said.
As for what’s happening in the brain during extreme heat, that is
challenging to study, Paulus said. In a lab, you can experiment with how the
brain and the rest of the body withstand a few minutes or possibly hours of
high temperatures, but you cannot do that for days, weeks, or months at a time
— and it’s those longer exposures that are really important for understanding
how climate change may affect us in the long run.
But the fact that this link between heat and mental health is so
consistent in people around the world suggests that the heat is doing something
to the brain, Nori-Sarma said. Some researchers have hypothesized that heat may
cause an imbalance in brain signaling or inflammation in the brain. But another
prominent theory is that heat causes sleep disruptions, which in turn can
worsen mental health symptoms.
Warm nights significantly worsen sleep, Obradovich said. “And we
know from a large body of literature in psychology and psychiatry that
insufficient sleep, sleep difficulties and insomnia are very closely linked to
worse mental health status over time.”
It’s possible that the explanation for heat’s effect on mental
health may come from a combination of these different existing theories,
Obradovich added.
Other potential elements at play
We also cannot forget about climate anxiety, Paulus said.
Wildfires and heat waves, among other weather-related events, are increasing in
frequency and intensity because of climate change. As global warming worsens,
eco-anxiety might exacerbate other stress, anxiety, depression, or even
disaster-related post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, he added.
Certain people are also more vulnerable to heat than others. In
their 2018 study, Obradovich and Paulus’ team found that those with lower
incomes experienced worse mental health effects from heat than those with
higher incomes, and women experienced worse effects than men. Combined, they
found that the effect of heat on mental health was twice as bad for low-income
women as it was for high-income men.
In the throes of a heat wave, it is not always clear how to
protect yourself. But being mindful of your heat exposure, staying hydrated,
and avoiding the heat when you can are always good options. Looking out for
people in your community is also a powerful, overlooked strategy, Nori-Sarma
said.
That means “neighbors checking in on neighbors, friends, and
families, making sure that everyone’s OK.”
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