Is heat affecting your mental health? It is possible.Recent studyfound that emergency hospital visits for mental health-related conditions are higher on days where there is extreme heat.
High temperatures are known for causing acute physical illnesses such as heatstroke and nausea. But the Jama Psychiatry Study shows that this impact goes beyond past physical repercussions.
This medical data, which was collected from over 2 million U.S. adults, may aid in the pre-existing argument that climate change has a negative effect on mental health conditions, officials said. It could help in the push for greater preventative actions towards climate change.
Researchers used a medical database that contained data from between 2010 and 2019, which was compiled by people aged 18 or older in 2,775 counties, where they had access to either Medicare Advantage or commercial health insurance.
A database called PRISM provides daily temperature information for all counties in the United States between May and September. “extreme heat days”These days were those where the highest temperature was greater than 95% of other days in that time period.
These episodes of extreme heat were correlated with the number of emergency department visits for mental disorders such as anxiety disorders and mood disorders, stress related disorders, self-harm, and substance abuse disorders. These data were not consistent with visits for personality and behavioral disorders.
Although the researchers acknowledged that there was a correlation, it does not mean that there is a causality.