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Review
. 2020 Aug;14(4):398-409.
doi: 10.1111/eip.12861. Epub 2019 Aug 6.

Urbanicity: The need for new avenues to explore the link between urban living and psychosis

Lilith Abrahamyan Empson  1 , Philipp S Baumann  1   2 , Ola Söderström  3 , Zoé Codeluppi  3 , Dag Söderström  4 , Philippe Conus  1
Affiliations
Review

Urbanicity: The need for new avenues to explore the link between urban living and psychosis

Lilith Abrahamyan Empson et al. Early Interv Psychiatry. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

Aim: A growing body of evidence suggests that urban living contributes to the development of psychosis. However, the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon remain unclear. This paper aims to explore the best available knowledge on the matter, identify research gaps and outline future prospects for research strategies.

Method: A comprehensive literature survey on the main computerized medical research databases, with a time limit up to August 2017 on the issue of urbanicity and psychosis has been conducted.

Results: The impact of urbanicity may result from a wide range of factors (from urban material features to stressful impact of social life) leading to "urban stress." The latter may link urban upbringing to the development of psychosis through overlapping neuro- and socio-developmental pathways, possibly unified by dopaminergic hyperactivity in mesocorticolimbic system. However, "urban stress" is poorly defined and research based on patients' experience of the urban environment is scarce.

Conclusions: Despite accumulated data, the majority of studies conducted so far failed to explain how specific factors of urban environment combine in patients' daily life to create protective or disruptive milieus. This undermines the translation of a vast epidemiological knowledge into effective therapeutic and urbanistic developments. New studies on urbanicity should therefore be more interdisciplinary, bridging knowledge from different disciplines (psychiatry, epidemiology, human geography, urbanism, etc.) in order to enrich research methods, ensure the development of effective treatment and preventive strategies as well as create urban environments that will contribute to mental well-being.

Keywords: environmental risk; psychosis; risk factors; schizophrenia; urbanicity.

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References

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