Australian study warns of rising youth mental health admissions as heat intensifies

Sydney: Extreme heat significantly increases the risk of hospital admissions for mental health conditions among young people, according to a large Australian study, highlighting a growing public health concern linked to climate change.

“Climate change is already impacting children and young people’s mental health in multiple ways,” said the study’s co-author Cybele Dey, an adolescent psychiatrist with the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network, quoted by the Guardian Australia on Tuesday.

Led by the University of Sydney, the study of 720,000 hospital admissions in the state of New South Wales, involving people aged up to 24 between 2001 and 2022, found that when temperatures hit the top 1 per cent of records, admission risk doubled in warmer months and tripled in cooler months.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, projects that heat-related mental health admissions could rise by 6 per cent to 7.7 per cent by the end of the century as global temperatures increase, reports Xinhua news agency.

It captures only the most severe cases requiring hospital admission — such as depression, schizophrenia, substance misuse, eating disorders and self-harm — and excludes emergency and outpatient visits.

Researchers said the rapid rise in admissions after heat spikes suggests a physiological response, possibly linked to sleep disruption, stress, altered brain function, and increased impulsivity, alcohol or other substance use.

The findings underscore the need to include psychological risks in heat-health planning and policies, according to the Guardian Australia.

IANS