Rising Temperatures and Mental Health  

Rising Temperatures and Mental Health

 Introduction

In the United States of America, hotter temperatures particularly hurricanes in addition to precipitation are linked with increased mental health challenges prevalence (Palinkas & Wong, 2020). As discussed in recent empirical findings and experts, cases of mental health are likely to worsen when the climate progressively gets warm. Experts via the introduction of data selected randomly from two million citizens in the U.S argued that an average increase in temperature by one-degree calcium over five year period resulted in a 2% increase in self-reported prevalence cases of mental health concerns (Lawrance et al., 2021). The increased cases of mental health challenges were prevalent among low-income respondents more so lowly income women. This paper specifically provides further in-depth research on whether cases of mental health issues were rampant with an increase in temperatures specifically hurricanes.

Research Question

Do the rise in temperature and more so hurricanes and added precipitation associated with an increase in mental health challenges in the United States of America?

Topic Rationale

Understanding the impact of hotter temperatures on mental health concerns is significant in the field of psychology. Precisely, every day a rise in temperature by eighty degrees Fahrenheit indicates a probability report to mental health challenges such as stress, depression, and other emotional concerns (Lawrance et al., 2021). Generally, higher temperature increases the emergency department visit for mental illness, self-reported cases of poor mental health, and suicide. Increased temperature increases irritability cases and depression symptoms in addition to illnesses linked to heatstroke and heat cramps. Furthermore, as backed by American Psychological Association and Eco America, warmer temperature leads to a chain reaction of other transformations as its rise affects the weather patterns, oceans, ice, and snow (Silveira et al., 2021). Therefore, I believe this research is vital in discussing how climate change affects psychology by focusing more on the connection between warmer temperatures and mental health.

References

Lawrance, E., Thompson, R. H. I. A. N. N. O. N., Fontana, G. I. A. N. L. U. C. A., & Jennings, D. N. (2021). The impact of climate change on mental health and emotional wellbeing: current evidence and implications for policy and practice. Available at: https://www. imperial. ac. UK/Grantham/publications/all-publications/the-impact-of-climate-change-on-mental health-and-emotional-wellbeing-current-evidence-and-implications-for-policy-and-practice. PHP.

Palinkas, L. A., & Wong, M. (2020). Global climate change and mental health. Current opinion in psychology, 32, 12-16.

Silveira, S., Kornbluh, M., Withers, M. C., Grennan, G., Ramanathan, V., & Mishra, J. (2021). Chronic mental health sequelae of climate change extremes: a case study of the deadliest Californian wildfire. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(4), 1487.