The Impact of Climate Change on Mental Health: A Systematic Descriptive Review

Abstract

Background: Climate change is one of the great challenges of our time. The consequences of climate change on exposed biological subjects, as well as on vulnerable societies, are a concern for the entire scientific community. Rising temperatures, heat waves, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts, fires, loss of forest, and glaciers, along with disappearance of rivers and desertification, can directly and indirectly cause human pathologies that are physical and mental. However, there is a clear lack in psychiatric studies on mental disorders linked to climate change. Methods: Literature available on PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane library until end of June 2019 were reviewed. The total number of articles and association reports was 445. From these, 163 were selected. We looked for the association between classical psychiatric disorders such as anxiety schizophrenia, mood disorder and depression, suicide, aggressive behaviors, despair for the loss of usual landscape, and phenomena related to climate change and extreme weather. Review of literature was then divided into specific areas: the course of change in mental health, temperature, water, air pollution, drought, as well as the exposure of certain groups and critical psychological adaptations. Results: Climate change has an impact on a large part of the population, in different geographical areas and with different types of threats to public health. However, the delay in studies on climate change and mental health consequences is an important aspect. Lack of literature is perhaps due to the complexity and novelty of this issue. It has been shown that climate change acts on mental health with different timing. The phenomenology of the effects of climate change differs greatly-some mental disorders are common and others more specific in relation to atypical climatic conditions. Moreover, climate change also affects different population groups who are directly exposed and more vulnerable in their geographical conditions, as well as a lack of access to resources, information, and protection. Perhaps it is also worth underlining that in some papers the connection between climatic events and mental disorders was described through the introduction of new terms, coined only recently: ecoanxiety, ecoguilt, ecopsychology, ecological grief, solastalgia, biospheric concern, etc. Conclusions: The effects of climate change can be direct or indirect, short-term or longterm. Acute events can act through mechanisms similar to that of traumatic stress, leading

How a typical West African day in the future-climate compares with current-climate conditions in a convection-permitting and parameterised convection climate model

“…Indeed, the authors could not find dedicated studies of climate change and mental wellbeing for communities living in West Africa, highlighting an important avenue for future research. Subsequently, we provide discussion drawing from the wider literature whilst stressing there is a need for more investigation of this evolving subject both globally, as argued by Bourque and Willox (2014), Hayes et al (2018), and Cianconi et al (2020) among others, and specifically for West Africa.…”

Climate shift and mental health adjustment

“…These concerns about the health state of biosphere (eg, watching the slow and seemingly irrevocable impact of ecological unbalance, feeling frustration due to an inability to cope with climate change, and anxiety concerning the future of later generations) are now experienced more keenly as people are globally immersed in the information and communication about it. 9 There are no specific references to mental disorders related to climate change in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 10 and in International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10, and they are not expected in ICD-11.…”

Local Action with Global Impact: The Case of the GROW Observatory and the Sustainable Development Goals

“…COs can present themselves as potential climate solutions and antidotal mechanisms to reduce levels of eco-anxiety (i.e. the fear of environmental damage or ecological disaster) caused by the growing realisation of the urgency for action to combat climate change and its impacts [69,70]. COs offer a valuable opportunity to accelerate and amplify civic engagement and to reduce the feeling of powerlessness.…”