Sydney, July 7 (IANS). Most of the continents of the world including Europe and America are suffering from heat wave. There are also reports of casualties. Meanwhile, a study conducted in Australia has highlighted its impact on the mental state of the youth. According to the study, extreme heat is causing mental health problems among the youth.
“Climate change is already affecting the mental health of children and young people in a number of ways,” study co-author Cybel Day, an adolescent psychiatrist at the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network, said in a report published Tuesday in The Guardian Australia.
The study, led by the University of Sydney, analyzed nearly 7.2 lakh hospital admissions for people aged up to 24 years in the state of New South Wales between 2001 and 2022.
The study found that when temperatures reached the top 1 percent of records, the risk of mental health-related hospitalization doubled in the hottest months, while the risk tripled in the coldest months.
This study has been published in the ‘Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’. It is estimated that if global temperatures continue to rise at this rate, hospitalizations for heat-related mental health reasons could increase by 6 percent to 7.7 percent by the end of this century. This information has been given in the report of Xinhua news agency.
The study included only those severe cases that required hospitalization. These include mental health issues like depression, schizophrenia, substance abuse, eating disorders and self-harm. However, it did not include cases from emergency department (emergency) and outpatient services.
Researchers say that the rapid increase in mental health cases after extreme heat indicates that the body’s biological (physiological) response may be behind it. Possible causes may include disrupted sleep, stress, changes in brain functioning, increased impulsive behavior, and increased consumption of alcohol or other drugs.
According to the researchers, these findings emphasize that mental and psychological risks should also be included in heat-health plans and policies.
–IANS
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