Publication

highlights our academic publications that examine the intersection of climate, health, and poverty.

Climate change and schizophrenia: Implications and directions

Authors:

Sean A. Kidd, Daniel Rosenbaum, Martin Rotenberg, Glen P. Kenny

Year of publication:

2025

Journal:

Elsevier - Schizophrenia Research

Keywords:

Climate change, Environmental risk, Heat, Schizophrenia

Abstract

The World Health Organization has identified climate change as the most profound threat to human health (United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, 2022; World Health Organization, 2023). Its impacts, which range widely from physical injury in severe storms to complex indirect effects on factors such as food security and disease prevalence (Romanello et al., 2024), disproportionality harm vulnerable populations. These vulnerable populations include people with schizophrenia and related disorders (hereafter referred to as schizophrenia). For example, during the 2021 Western Heat Dome in Canada, people with schizophrenia faced the greatest mortality risk from heat-related causes – a three-fold increase – as compared with other major chronic physical and mental health conditions (Chen et al., 2023a, Chen et al., 2023b; Lee et al., 2023). This commentary explores (1) the elevated risk people with schizophrenia face due to climate change, (2) prevention and treatment strategies, and (3) directions for research in the context of evidence gaps.

Susceptibility of persons with schizophrenia to extreme heat:

A critical review of physiological, behavioural, and social factors

Authors:

Nathalie V. Kirby, Emily J. Tetzlaff, Sean A. Kidd, Eric E. Brown, Mariya Bezgrebelna , Liv Yoon, Sarah B. Henderson, Glen P. Kenny

Year of publication:

2025

Journal:

Elsevier - Science of The Total Environment

Keywords:

Schizophrenia, Thermoregulation, Heat waves, Climate change, Mental disorders, Extreme heat events

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness affecting approximately 24 million people worldwide. Schizophrenia diagnosis is associated with more than double the all-cause mortality risk of the general population and a 13- to 15-year reduction in life expectancy, due to a myriad of intersecting factors and underlying causes. Persons with schizophrenia are particularly susceptible to the negative health effects of extreme heat, as demonstrated by the 2021 Western North America Heat Dome. During this event, schizophrenia was associated with a 3-fold increase in the odds of mortality in British Columbia, Canada, far surpassing the risks associated with other common heat-sensitive chronic conditions, including diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. While individual factors such as age, presence of chronic disease, and medication-use can impair thermoregulation and limit a person's ability to sense and respond to heat, physiological and behavioural factors associated with schizophrenia can exacerbate these impairments. In-turn, social and community-level factors play important roles in aggravating or mitigating heat-health risks. However, to date, our understanding of the separate and combined influence of the physiological, behavioural, and social determinants underpinning heat-susceptibility in individuals with schizophrenia remains largely unresolved. We therefore conducted a critical review to examine the physiological factors that can increase susceptibility to the negative effects of heat in persons with schizophrenia and profile the social and community-level factors aggravating or mitigating these risks. An interdisciplinary, multi-level approach is essential to facilitate effective heat-health planning and community adaptation to prevent heat-related injuries and deaths in persons with schizophrenia during extreme heat.