Global Warming Kills People With Mental Health Problems – Study

People with mental health problems, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or anxiety, are more likely to die from the heat, CNN reports.

This is stated in a study by scientists from Canada and the United States, published in AGU.

As the scientists found out, during the record heat wave in the Canadian province of British Columbia in June 2021, 8% of people who died as a result of the heat wave were diagnosed with schizophrenia.

"Until climate change is brought under control, the situation will unfortunately only get worse. As the temperature continues to rise, these effects will intensify. There will be more storms, more fires, and people will be more worried about what might happen," says Dr. Robert Feder, a representative of the American Psychiatric Association in the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health.

According to the study, rising temperatures are also associated with an increase in suicide attempts and the number of visits to psychiatric emergency departments.

"The prehypothalamus is the part of the brain that signals when you are too hot or too cold. It tells the brain to, for example, drink water or put on a coat. Bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or manic-depressive disorder disrupt the neurotransmission of information to this part of the brain," says Dr. Peter Crank, Associate Professor of Geography and Environmental Management at the University of Waterloo in Canada.

Experts add that the ability to regulate body temperature may also be related to brain chemicals such as serotonin and dopamine, which are usually lower in people with mental disorders.

High temperatures can also interfere with sleep, an important factor in mental health.

Due to the psychosis experienced by people with schizophrenia, they may not realise that they are overheating and do nothing to take care of their safety.

People with mental illness are also more likely to self-medicate with drugs that interfere with their body's ability to sense and respond to heat.

According to Dr. Joshua Wortzel, chair of the American Psychiatric Association's Committee on Climate Change and Mental Health, there is a need for greater access to cooling centres and other resources at the policy level, as well as more funding for research to help better understand the impact of heat on mental health.

As previously reported by The Gaze, almost half of Europeans experience mental health problems. On World Mental Health Day, which was celebrated on 10 October, the European Commission released the results of a study showing that almost half of Europeans have experienced mental health problems in the past 12 months, with more than half of them not receiving professional help.