By Cindy Krischer Goodman | South Florida Sun Sentinel
Day after day of unbearable heat, Jan Cox feels herself sinking more into a depression.
“There does not seem to be any relief,” said Cox, who has given up gardening and outside activity as the heat index climbs to new records in Florida.
The 79-year-old Central Florida resident says she has lived in the state all her life, but the unrelenting heat this summer has affected her mental health. “I try not to dwell on it, but the feeling is there,” she said.
While health officials issue warnings for physical danger from extreme heat, like heat stroke and heat exhaustion, just as concerning are the links between high temperatures and mental health issues.
Research shows the high temperatures combined with the thick humidity plaguing can take a toll on everything from day-to-day moods to the potential for a mental health crisis, or self-harm.
“It’s been proven that protracted hot weather can make people depressed,” said Dr. Charles Raison, who has done research on heat intolerance and summer-related depression. “It seems as if the system that modulates body temp also modulates mood.”
Raison, professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, said people with mental illness often have trouble with thermal regulation. “From our data, we know that people with depression tend to run body temperatures higher than average, and they don’t sweat as much. So being depressed could set you up to not be able to tolerate heat well.”
The correlation between heat and mental health is only beginning to be measured as scientists consider whether Americans have the coping mechanisms to handle heat waves as climate change worsens.
Emergency department doctors like Dr. Brian Drummond in Tucson, Arizona, are seeing patients arrive with manic behavior, rage and severe depression just as much as with heat stroke this summer. “It’s the heat and all the…
Read the full article here
