Psychology & Brain Science

Rising Temperatures and Heatwaves may affect our mental health

Rising Temperatures and Heatwaves may affect our mental health

A meta-analysis found that rising temperatures and heatwaves are linked to increased mental health problems, including higher mortality and hospital admissions. Each 1°C rise in temperature significantly raises risks for mood disorders, neurotic disorders, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and suicide. When the temperature stays extremely high for consecutive 3 days, older adults, males, and fragile populations living in tropical and subtropical climate zones are more vulnerable. As global temperatures rise, addressing heat-related mental health risks becomes increasingly important for healthcare systems and policymakers to adopt heat mitigation strategies and provide mental health support during extreme weather.

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chatgpt image mar 21, 2026, 03 40 57 pm

Community Service Boosts Preventive Care, Reduces Hospital Stays, and Supports Healthy Aging

Study conducted with ~7000 adults aged over 51, for 2 years found that volunteering for any social cause have least health risks and have better physical and mental health behaviours. Volunteers show greater use of preventive health services as they are more likely to undergo screenings such as flu shots and cancer tests, suggesting more proactive health behaviour. At the same time, they spent fewer nights in the hospital, indicating better overall health or reduced severity of illness. These findings suggest that volunteering may promote healthier lifestyles and potentially lower health care costs, most likely due to involvement of both psychological and social factors.

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chatgpt image mar 20, 2026, 08 29 49 pm

School-based Gamified Therapy supports student mental health and prevent depression

SPARX-R is a gamified online cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) intervention, designed to prevent the development of exacerbation depressive symptoms in adolescents. Delivered in 7 modules, the tool covers key skills like relaxation, activity scheduling and behavioural activation, emotion regulation, interpersonal skills, problem solving, cognitive restructuring, and distress tolerance. Timely intervention of such CBT programs, before a major stressor like final exams, can reduce depressive symptoms in adolescents, particularly in the short to medium term.

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chatgpt image mar 14, 2026, 05 34 33 pm

Our Stress Beliefs are linked to the Physical Health Problems

Study conducted at German University found that students who held negative beliefs about stress like “stress is bad for health”, were more likely to report somatic symptoms like muscular tension, back pain, headache, migraine, chest pain, fatigue during stressful periods like academic examinations. Even after controlling for factors such as existing health status, neuroticism, and optimism, negative stress beliefs still predicted higher symptom reporting. This is because chronic stress may involve a wear and tear of stress responsive bodily hypothalamic pituitary-adrenal axis and the autonomic nervous system.

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