Abstract
Climate change is negatively impacting the mental health of populations. This scoping review aims to assess the available literature related to climate change and mental health across the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) five global research priorities for protecting human health from climate change. We conducted a scoping review to identify original research studies related to mental health and climate change using online academic databases. We assessed the quality of studies where appropriate assessment tools were available. We identified 120 original studies published between 2001 and 2020. Most studies were quantitative (n = 67), cross-sectional (n = 42), conducted in high-income countries (n = 87), and concerned with the first of the WHO global research priorities—assessing the mental health risks associated with climate change (n = 101). Several climate-related exposures, including heat, humidity, rainfall, drought, wildfires, and floods were associated with psychological distress, worsened mental health, and higher mortality among people with pre-existing mental health conditions, increased psychiatric hospitalisations, and heightened suicide rates. Few studies (n = 19) addressed the other four global research priorities of protecting health from climate change (effective interventions (n = 8); mitigation and adaptation (n = 7); improving decision-support (n = 3); and cost estimations (n = 1)). While climate change and mental health represents a rapidly growing area of research, it needs to accelerate and broaden in scope to respond with evidence-based mitigation and adaptation strategies.
Highlights
We identified a body of research related to populations and contexts that are anticipated to be more vulnerable to climate change and its mental health impacts
The current scoping review has shown that climate change and mental health represents a rapidly growing area of research; it is underdeveloped and will need to accelerate and broaden in scope to respond with evidence-based mitigation and adaptation strategies
Most of the research has been devoted to assessing the mental health risks due to climate change, with less applied research investigating practical issues such as identifying the most effective interventions and policies to safeguard mental health in the face of climate change
Summary
The ‘Lancet Countdown on health and climate change’ has been established as an independent, global monitoring system dedicated to tracking the health dimensions of the impacts of, and the response to, climate change [2]. While the Lancet Countdown includes numerous health indicators, it currently lacks an indicator capable of capturing the impact of climate change on mental health globally. This lack of representation in global climate and health initiatives is of considerable concern, as mental disorders are a leading cause of burden of disease globally and contribute to increased rates of premature mortality [3].
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