Constant Heat Waves Takes Toll on Mental Health

Research indicates that heat waves might also have a negative impact on mental health. Extreme temperatures can affect mood and increase the risk of a more serious mental health condition.

Climate change is anticipated to exacerbate the harmful effects of excessive heat on mental health, including an increase in suicides and aggressive behavior.

Extreme Summer Heat

This summer, tens of millions of Americans have been forced to endure heat wave after heat wave in what seems like an endless string of muggy days and sweltering temperatures. Extreme heat and humidity may be physically painful, but research indicates that they can also be difficult for your psychological well-being.

Public health was directly impacted by the extreme heat that swept most of Europe this week. In Spain and Portugal alone, more than 2,000 people passed away from heat-related conditions such as heat stroke or dehydration, while the London Ambulance Service had 400 calls per hour during the warmest parts of the day.

Frequent Psychiatric Visit

As scientists are starting to realize, heat waves harm mental health in more ways than one. Research is now beginning to explain how and why excessive heat can harm mental health, especially in people with underlying psychiatric disorders, resulting in a rise in suicides and violent behavior.

According to a research in JAMA Psychiatry published earlier this year, emergency department visits for drug use, anxiety, schizophrenia, and other mental diseases can rise by as much as 8% nationwide on days that significantly surpass average highs. Experts have long recognized the association between hot weather and violent behavior. Heat enhances impatience and animosity, according to laboratory research, which may help to explain why violent crime tends to increase in the summer.

Additionally, during heat waves, the spring and summer months see the highest suicide rates, which are already high. According to a 2018 study published in Nature Climate Change, suicides increased by 1 to 2 percent for every degree Celsius; the temperature went over the average for a specific county in the U.S. and Mexico.

More and More Heat Waves

As heat waves occur more frequently and are more powerful, these extensive consequences are expected to become more noticeable. The acute effects of heat on mental health, who they affect most, and how they could get worse as the earth heats were the topics of a conversation between Grid and Laurence Wainwright, a mental health researcher at the University of Oxford.

Holistic Health

Just as physical and mental health are inextricably linked, the body and the brain are. As a result, discussing one without also discussing the other is impossible.

People are now far more comfortable discussing their challenges with mental health and living with a psychiatric condition than they were ten years ago. I believe we can expand on this to include climate change and acknowledge the very severe issues present, particularly for those with underlying psychiatric conditions, as a result of the extreme weather events brought on by climate change, particularly heat waves.

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