Summary: Climate change poses a significant threat to people with brain diseases. Extreme temperatures, poor sleep due to warmer nights, and adverse weather events can worsen neurological and psychiatric disorders, increasing hospitalizations and mortality.
Researchers call for urgent action to protect vulnerable populations and mitigate the impact of climate change on brain health.
Highlights:
- Climate change negatively affects various neurological and psychiatric disorders.
- Extreme temperatures and weather events can worsen symptoms and increase mortality.
- Urgent action is needed to protect people with brain diseases from the effects of climate change.
Source: UCL
Climate change, and its effects on adverse weather patterns and events, is likely to negatively affect the health of people with brain diseases, says a UCL-led team of researchers.
In an article Personal View, published in THE Lancet NeurologyThe team highlights the urgent need to understand the impact of climate change on people with neurological conditions – in order to preserve their health and prevent worsening inequalities.
Following an analysis of 332 papers published worldwide between 1968 and 2023, the team, led by Professor Sanjay Sisodiya (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology), said they expect the scale of potential effects of climate change on neurological diseases are substantial. .
They looked at 19 different nervous system conditions, chosen based on the 2016 Global Burden of Disease study, including stroke, migraine, Alzheimer’s disease, meningitis, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis .
The team also analyzed the impact of climate change on several serious but common psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, depression and schizophrenia.
Professor Sisodiya, who is also Director of Genomics at the Epilepsy Society and a founding member of Epilepsy Climate Change, said: “There is clear evidence of an impact of climate on some brain conditions, particularly stroke. brain and nervous system infections.
“Climatic variations that had an effect on brain diseases included extremes of temperature (both low and high) and greater temperature variations throughout the day, particularly when these measurements were unusual across seasons.
“Night-time temperatures can be particularly important, as higher temperatures during the night can disrupt sleep. Poor sleep is known to worsen a number of brain problems.
Researchers found that there was an increase in admissions, disability or mortality following stroke in higher ambient temperatures or heat waves.
At the same time, the team says that people with dementia are likely to experience temperature extremes (e.g., heat-related illness or hypothermia) and weather events (e.g., floods or wildfires), because cognitive impairment may limit their ability to adapt their behavior to environmental changes.
They write: “Reduced awareness of risk is combined with a diminished ability to seek help or mitigate potential harm, for example by drinking more in hot weather or adjusting one’s clothing.
“This susceptibility is aggravated by frailty, multimorbidity and psychotropic medications. As a result, greater temperature variation, warmer days, and heat waves lead to increased hospitalizations and mortality associated with dementia.
Additionally, the incidence, hospitalizations, and mortality risk for many mental health disorders are associated with increased ambient temperature, daily temperature fluctuations, or extremely hot and cold temperatures.
The researchers note that as the severity of adverse weather events and global temperatures increase, populations are exposed to worsening environmental factors that may not have been severe enough to affect brain conditions in some previous studies that they reviewed as part of the analysis.
As a result, they believe it is important to ensure that research is up to date and takes into account not only the current state of climate change, but also the future.
Professor Sisodiya said: “This work is taking place against a backdrop of worryingly worsening climate conditions and will need to remain agile and dynamic if it is to generate information useful to both individuals and organisations.
“Additionally, there are few studies assessing the health consequences of brain diseases under future climate scenarios, making forward planning difficult. »
He added: “The very concept of climate anxiety has an additional, potentially important, influence: many brain conditions are associated with a higher risk of psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, and such multimorbidities may further complicate the impacts of climate change and the adaptations necessary to preserve the environment. health. But there are steps we can and must take now. »
The new article is published before The Hot Brain 2: climate change and brain health event, led by Professor Sisodiya and organized jointly by UCL and The Lancet Neurology.
The objectives of the meeting are to raise awareness of the risks of climate change to brain and neurological care, fuel global collaborative research, promote action on climate change and foster adaptation strategies.
Funding: The research was funded by the Epilepsy Society and the National Brain Appeal Innovation Fund.
About this news on brain health research and climate change
Author: Poppy Tombs
Source: UCL
Contact: Poppy tombs – UCL
Picture: Image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: Closed access.
“Climate change and nervous system disorders” by Sanjay Sisodiya et al. Lancet Neurology
Abstract
Climate change and nervous system disorders
Anthropogenic climate change affects the health of populations, particularly those suffering from neurological and psychiatric illnesses.
Currently, it is difficult to draw conclusions about the effect of climate change on neurological and psychiatric diseases due to the overall paucity of data, different study methods, lack of details on disease subtypes, little consideration of the effect of individual and population genetics and considerable differences. geographic locations with potential for regional influences.
However, evidence suggests that the incidence, prevalence, and severity of many nervous system conditions (e.g., stroke, neurological infections, and some mental health disorders) may be affected by climate change.
The data shows broad and complex adverse effects, including extreme temperatures that people are not accustomed to and wide diurnal fluctuations in temperature.
Protective measures could be possible thanks to local forecasts. Few studies project the future effects of climate change on brain health, hampering policy developments.
In-depth studies into the threats of climate change to people suffering from or at risk of developing nervous system disorders are urgently needed.