Experts Warn of Mental Health Fallout Due to Climate Change
(MENAFN) As the planet faces relentless wildfires, record-breaking heat, and catastrophic floods, experts warn of an escalating yet overlooked threat: the mental health fallout from climate change.
Disasters like intense flooding, wildfires, and extreme heatwaves are sweeping across every continent, inflicting psychological strain on billions affected worldwide.
“Climate change can have a profound effect on mental health through both direct and indirect pathways,” Dorina Cadar, a prominent neuroepidemiology and dementia researcher, told media.
She detailed how individuals exposed to extreme weather—floods, wildfires, hurricanes, or heatwaves—often endure acute stress and trauma. These experiences frequently trigger anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Neil Jennings, a climate specialist affiliated with the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London, pointed out the long-standing disregard for mental health impacts linked to climate change.
“Climate change is having an impact on health-related outcomes … (in) both physical health and mental health,” Jennings told media.
However, he stressed that mental health “historically has received less attention than physical health.”
From Mood Shifts to Suicide Risks
Recent weeks have seen record heatwaves scorch vast regions of the Mediterranean, Europe, Asia, the US, and the Middle East, with warnings of extended periods of extreme temperatures.
“Heat waves are often overlooked in terms of mental health research, yet these have been linked to changes in mood, increased aggression, disturbed sleep, and a rise in hospital admissions for people with existing mental health conditions,” said Cadar, who leads the Cognitive Epidemiology, Dementia, and Ageing Research (CEDAR) lab at Brighton and Sussex Medical School.
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