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. 2023 Sep 6;8(Suppl 4):122-149.
doi: 10.25646/11656. eCollection 2023 Sep.

Scoping review of climate change and mental health in Germany - Direct and indirect impacts, vulnerable groups, resilience factors

Nadja Gebhardt  1 , Katharina van Bronswijk  2 , Maxie Bunz  3 , Tobias Müller  4   5   6 , Pia Niessen  7 , Christoph Nikendei  1
Affiliations

Scoping review of climate change and mental health in Germany - Direct and indirect impacts, vulnerable groups, resilience factors

Nadja Gebhardt et al. J Health Monit. .

Abstract

Background: Climate change is a major threat to human health and has direct and indirect impacts on the human psyche.

Methods: To assess the state of knowledge on the impact of climate change on mental health in Germany, a scoping review was conducted for the focus topics extreme weather events, temperature increase, intra-psychological processing, sociological aspects, and resilience factors. Ten studies met the inclusion criteria of the searches in the databases Academic Search Complete, CINAHL, PubPsych, PubMed, and PsychInfo. The majority of the studies looked at correlative relationships in a cross-sectional design.

Results: There are indications of an accumulation of psychiatric disorders after extreme weather events; in addition, the risk of suicide increases with higher temperatures and it appears there is an increase in aggressive behaviour. The majority of people surveyed in Germany report concerns about the consequences of climate change, although these currently rarely lead to clinically significant impairments in mental health.

Conclusions: Overall, the evidence for Germany must be classified as insufficient. In addition to the absolute priority of climate protection (mitigation) by reducing emissions, there is a particular need for additional research with a focus on vulnerable groups and possibilities for prevention and adaptation.

Keywords: CLIMATE CHANGE; MENTAL HEALTH; MENTAL WELL-BEING; RESILIENCE; STRUCTURAL PREVENTION.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest The authors declared no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Annex Figure 1
Annex Figure 1
Flow charts of the literature selection per focus topic Annex Figure 1a (left) Extreme weather events Annex Figure 1b (right) Temperature increase Annex Figure 1c (left) Intra-psychological processing Annex Figure 1d (right) Sociological aspects Annex Figure 1e Resilience factors
Annex Figure 1
Annex Figure 1
Flow charts of the literature selection per focus topic Annex Figure 1a (left) Extreme weather events Annex Figure 1b (right) Temperature increase Annex Figure 1c (left) Intra-psychological processing Annex Figure 1d (right) Sociological aspects Annex Figure 1e Resilience factors
Annex Figure 1
Annex Figure 1
Flow charts of the literature selection per focus topic Annex Figure 1a (left) Extreme weather events Annex Figure 1b (right) Temperature increase Annex Figure 1c (left) Intra-psychological processing Annex Figure 1d (right) Sociological aspects Annex Figure 1e Resilience factors
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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