Climate Change: Aggression, Self Injury and Suicide

cocukpsikiyatrisi-9-2-2023

Hasan Can ÖZBAYa , Sezayi ATABEYb

aİsmail Fehmi Cumalıoğlu City Hospital, Clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Tekirdağ, Türkiye
bAydın Adnan Menderes University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Aydın, Türkiye

ABSTRACT
The World Health Organization has defined climate change as the greatest challenge of the 21st century, threatening all aspects of our society, and declared it a global public health emergency. Studies examining the impacts of climate change on mental health indicate profound effects, particularly on vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly, and individuals with mental illnesses. In the literature, it is evident that increased average temperatures during summer exacerbate existing mental health disorders, reduce the efficacy of certain psychotropic medications, and increase symptoms such as suicide, aggression, and self-injury behaviors. Children and adolescents are more susceptible to the effects of climate change due to their developmental vulnerability, leading to cumulative mental health impacts over their lifetimes. Therefore, it is imperative to develop policies within the framework of preventive mental health and implement appropriate precautions to protect all children and young people from the adverse effects of climate change.
Keywords: Suicide; self-injury behavior; druought; adolescent; child; climate change

Referanslar

  1. WHO. COP24 Special Report: Health and Climate Change. World Health Organization. 2015. [cited: August 18, 2023]. Available from: [Link]
  2. NASA. (2020b). Global Version Change | Resources - Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet. [cited: August 18, 2023]. Available from: [Link]
  3. Howard C, Huston P. The health effects of climate change: Know the risks and become part of the solutions. Can Commun Dis Rep. 2019;45(5):114-8. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  4. Ventriglio A, Ricci F. Poverty in Modern Era: Challenges for mental health professionals. Int J Soc Psychiatry. 2023;69(4):1053-4. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  5. Woodward A, Macmillan A. "Climate change and human health." Oxford Textbook of Global Public Health .2022:193. [Crossref]
  6. Burke SEL, Sanson AV, Van Hoorn J. The Psychological Effects of Climate Change on Children. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2018;20(5):35. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  7. Coverdale J, Balon R, Beresin EV, Brenner AM, Guerrero APS, Louie AK, et al. Climate Change: A Call to Action for the Psychiatric Profession. Acad Psychiatry. 2018;42(3):317-23. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  8. McCann-Pineo M, Taioli E, Schwartz RM. Exposure to Hurricane Sandy and Risk of Opioid Abuse. Subst Use Misuse. 2021;56(8):1241-5. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  9. Hickman C, Marks E, Pihkala P, Clayton S, Lewandowski RE, Mayall EE, et al. Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey. Lancet Planet Health. 2021;5(12):e863-e73. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  10. Carleton TA. Crop-damaging temperatures increase suicide rates in India. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017;114(33):8746-51. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  11. Bridge JA, Goldstein TR, Brent DA. Adolescent suicide and suicidal behavior. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 200647(3-4):372-94. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  12. World Health Organization. "Suicide worldwide in 2019: global health estimates." 2021.
  13. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National suicide statistics: Ten leading causes of death by age group. 2017. [cited: August 18, 2023]. Available from: [Link]
  14. Nock MK, Green JG, Hwang I, McLaughlin KA, Sampson NA, Zaslavsky AM, et al. Prevalence, correlates, and treatment of lifetime suicidal behavior among adolescents: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement. JAMA Psychiatry. 2013;70(3):300-10. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  15. Yıldırım E, Öztürk M. "2009-2018 arasında Türkiye'de intihar hızı ve ilişkili özellikler." Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Dergisi. 2021;35(1):23-32. [Crossref]
  16. Nock MK, Borges G, Bromet EJ, Cha CB, Kessler RC, Lee S. Suicide and suicidal behavior. Epidemiol Rev. 2008;30(1):133-54. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  17. Sinyor M, Tse R, Pirkis J. Global trends in suicide epidemiology. Curr Opin Psychiatry. 2017;30(1):1-6. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  18. Kim MH, Jung-Choi K, Jun HJ, Kawachi I. Socioeconomic inequalities in suicidal ideation, parasuicides, and completed suicides in South Korea. Soc Sci Med. 2010;70(8):1254-61. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  19. Galvão PVM, Silva HRSE, Silva CMFPD. Temporal distribution of suicide mortality: A systematic review. J Affect Disord. 2018;228:132-42. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  20. Dixon PG, Kalkstein AJ. Where are weather-suicide associations valid? An examination of nine US counties with varying seasonality. Int J Biometeorol. 2018;62(5):685-97. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  21. Wang X, Lavigne E, Ouellette-kuntz H, Chen BE. Acute impacts of extreme temperature exposure on emergency room admissions related to mental and behavior disorders in Toronto, Canada. J Affect Disord. 2014;155:154-61. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  22. Page LA, Hajat S, Kovats RS. Relationship between daily suicide counts and temperature in England and Wales. Br J Psychiatry. 2007;191:106-12. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  23. Kim Y, Kim H, Gasparrini A, Armstrong B, Honda Y, Chung Y, et al. Suicide and Ambient Temperature: A Multi-Country Multi-City Study. Environ Health Perspect. 2019;127(11):117007. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  24. Kim Y, Kim H, Kim DS. Association between daily environmental temperature and suicide mortality in Korea (2001-2005). Psychiatry Res. 2011;186(2-3):390-6. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  25. Likhvar V, Honda Y, Ono M. Relation between temperature and suicide mortality in Japan in the presence of other confounding factors using time-series analysis with a semiparametric approach. Environ Health Prev Med. 2011;16(1):36-43. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  26. Bando DH, Teng CT, Volpe FM, Masi E, Pereira LA, Braga AL. Suicide and meteorological factors in São Paulo, Brazil, 1996-2011: a time series analysis. Braz J Psychiatry. 2017;39(3):220-7. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  27. Fountoulakis KN, Savopoulos C, Zannis P, Apostolopoulou M, Fountoukidis I, Kakaletsis N, et al. Climate change but not unemployment explains the changing suicidality in Thessaloniki Greece (2000-2012). J Affect Disord. 2016;193:331-8. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  28. Brewerton TD, Putnam KT, Lewine RRJ, Risch SC. Seasonality of cerebrospinal fluid monoamine metabolite concentrations and their associations with meteorological variables in humans. J Psychiatr Res. 2018;99:76-82. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  29. Tiihonen J, Halonen P, Tiihonen L, Kautiainen H, Storvik M, Callaway J. The Association of Ambient Temperature and Violent Crime. Sci Rep. 2017;7(1):6543. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  30. Yusa A, Berry P, J Cheng J, Ogden N, Bonsal B, Stewart R, et al. Climate Change, Drought and Human Health in Canada. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2015;12(7):8359-412. . [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  31. Page A, Morrell S, Taylor R. Suicide and political regime in New South Wales and Australia during the 20th century. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2002; 56(10):766-72. Erratum in: J Epidemiol Community Health 2002;56(12):960. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  32. Hanigan IC, Butler CD, Kokic PN, Hutchinson MF. Suicide and drought in New South Wales, Australia, 1970-2007. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012;109(35):13950-5. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  33. Thong HY, Maibach HI. Global warming and its dermatologic implications. Int J Dermatol. 2008;47(5):522-4. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  34. Opitz Stapleton S, Nadin R, Watson C, Kellett J. Climate change, migration and displacement: the need for a risk-informed and coherent approach. Overseas Development Institute. 2017.
  35. Carlson M, Miller N. "Bad experiences and aggression." Sociology & Social Research. 1988;72:155-8.
  36. Altintas M. "Bir Kisir Döngü Olarak Siddet/Violence as a Vicious Cycle." Psikiyatride Guncel Yaklasimlar. 2012;4(1):112. [Crossref]
  37. Shultz JM, Rechkemmer A, Rai A, McManus KT. Public Health and Mental Health Implications of Environmentally Induced Forced Migration. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2019;13(2):116-22. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  38. Adan RAH, van der Beek EM, Buitelaar JK, Cryan JF, Hebebrand J, Higgs S, et al. Nutritional psychiatry: Towards improving mental health by what you eat. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2019;29(12):1321-32. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  39. Melchior M, Caspi A, Howard LM, Ambler AP, Bolton H, Mountain N, et al. Mental health context of food insecurity: a representative cohort of families with young children. Pediatrics. 2009;124(4):e564-72. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  40. Miles-Novelo A, Anderson AA. Climate change and psychology: Effects of rapid global warming on violence and aggression. Current Climate Change Reports. 2019;5:36-46. [Crossref]
  41. Anderson CA, DeLisi M. Implications of global climate change for violence in developed and developing countries. 2011.
  42. Wilkowski BM, Meier BP, Robinson MD, Carter MS, Feltman R. Hot-headed is more than an expression: the embodied representation of anger in terms of heat. Emotion. 2009;9(4):464-77. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  43. Anderson CA, et al. Temperature and aggression. Advances in experimental social psychology. Vol. 32. Academic Press; 2000. p. 63-133. [Crossref]
  44. Feldman MD. The challenge of self-mutilation: a review. Compr Psychiatry. 1988;29(3):252-69. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  45. Lim KS, Wong CH, McIntyre RS, Wang J, Zhang Z, et al. Global Lifetime and 12-Month Prevalence of Suicidal Behavior, Deliberate Self-Harm and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury in Children and Adolescents between 1989 and 2018: A Meta-Analysis. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019;16(22):4581. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  46. Xiao Q, Song X, Huang L, Hou D, Huang X. Global prevalence and characteristics of non-suicidal self-injury between 2010 and 2021 among a non-clinical sample of adolescents: A meta-analysis. Front Psychiatry. 2022;13:912441. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  47. Monto MA, McRee N, Deryck FS. Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Among a Representative Sample of US Adolescents, 2015. Am J Public Health. 2018;108(8):1042-8. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  48. Mannekote Thippaiah S, Shankarapura Nanjappa M, Gude JG, Voyiaziakis E, Patwa S, Birur B, et al. Non-suicidal self-injury in developing countries: A review. Int J Soc Psychiatry. 2021;67(5):472-82. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  49. Williams MN, Hill SR, Spicer J. Do hotter temperatures increase the incidence of self-harm hospitalisations? Psychol Health Med. 2016;21(2):226-35. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  50. Lee H, Myung W, Kim H, Lee EM, Kim H. Association between ambient temperature and injury by intentions and mechanisms: A case-crossover design with a distributed lag nonlinear model. Sci Total Environ. 2020;746:141261. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  51. Kubo R, Ueda K, Seposo X, Honda A, Takano H. Association between ambient temperature and intentional injuries: A case-crossover analysis using ambulance transport records in Japan. Sci Total Environ. 2021;774:145511. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  52. Chauhan NR, Kapoor M, Prabha Singh L, Gupta RK, Chand Meena R, Tulsawani R, at all. Heat stress-induced neuroinflammation and aberration in monoamine levels in hypothalamus are associated with temperature dysregulation. Neuroscience. 2017;358:79-92. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  53. Ding N, Berry HL, Bennett CM. The Importance of Humidity in the Relationship between Heat and Population Mental Health: Evidence from Australia. PLoS One. 2016;11(10):e0164190. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  54. World Health Organization. Quantitative risk assessment of the effects of climate change on selected causes of death, 2030s and 2050s. World Health Organization. 2014.