12 hours Ago By Stuti Mishra
Extreme heat is putting people’s mental health at risk, an Australian study warns, linking rising temperatures to a growing burden of mental and behavioural disorders. High temperatures are already contributing to thousands of cases of poor mental health each year, the study published in Nature Climate Change on Monday says. This toll could increase drastically by 2050 as the planet continues to warm.
“From mild distress to serious conditions like schizophrenia , rising temperatures are making things harder for millions," Dr Peng Bi, lead author of the study from the University of Adelaide’s school of public health, says. The study uses disability-adjusted life years, or DALYs, a metric that captures both years of life lost and years lived with illness, to estimate the mental health toll of high temperatures. It notes that heat currently contributes to an annual loss of over 8,450 healthy life years in Australia , or around 1.
8 per cent of the country’s total mental and behavioural disorder burden. Researchers warn this toll could increase by nearly 50 per cent by 2050 as the climate continues to warm and heatwaves get longer. Rather than driving deaths, the bulk of this burden comes from people living with worsening mental health conditions made harder by extreme heat.
Young people between the ages of 15 and 44 are especially affected. Mental and behavioural disorders, or MBDs, include a wide range of illnesses related to emotional regulation, thinking and behaviour, including anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder , schizophrenia , alcohol and drug use disorders, and other related conditions. According to the study, around 8.
6 million Australians are expected to experience an MBD at some point in their lifetime. "Climate change will drive up mental health challenges beyond what population growth alone would cause," co-author Dr Jingwen Liu says. “Young people, who often face these issues early in life, are especially at risk as the climate crisis worsens.
” The study reveals that the impacts of extreme heat are not evenly distributed. Victoria and South Australia experience the highest proportion of heat-related mental health impacts currently, with up to 2.9 per cent of their total burden linked to high temperatures.
But looking ahead, the Northern Territory is expected to become the most affected region by mid-century due to its hotter climate, with projections suggesting over 4 per cent of its mental health burden could be heat-related by 2050. The study models future projections under various climate and population growth scenarios. Under a high-emissions trajectory, which means the world continues to burn fossil fuels like coal and oil at the current rate with no adaptation, the mental health burden from extreme heat could increase by 49 per cent.
When population growth is factored in, the increase could reach 141 per cent. But the study also projects that with effective adaptation, such as better housing, early warning systems, access to cooling, and green spaces, the increase in burden could be significantly reduced. For example, under the same high-emissions and population growth scenario, full adaptation could reduce the projected increase in burden from 141 per cent to 65 per cent by 2050.
The findings add to a growing body of evidence showing that the climate crisis is not only a threat to physical health but also to mental wellbeing, a connection that is still under-recognised and under-researched. A study in 2022 by academics at the Boston University School of Public Health found that days with higher-than-normal temperatures during the summer season in the US were associated with increased rates of emergency visits for any mental health-related condition. The new study comes at a time when Australia is already experiencing more frequent and intense heatwaves.
The country has warmed by 1.5C since 1910, according to the 2024 State of the Climate report by CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology, and has seen repeated record-breaking summer temperatures and long, punishing heat events in recent years. Globally, the last few years have been the hottest on record with temperatures consistently recorded above 1.
5C in 2024, the World Meteorological Organisation has confirmed. Previous research shows that Australia is warming at a rate faster than the global average. Despite these trends, mental health impacts are still not fully accounted for in national climate and health planning, the researchers warn.
"These results underscore the crucial role of policymakers in developing focused public health interventions to minimise the emergence of mental health impacts of climate change," Dr Bi says. The authors are calling for national and local heat-health action plans that include mental health as a priority. These could include dedicated mental health support during heatwaves, targeted interventions for vulnerable groups, and longer-term investments in community resilience.
"Policymakers must step up with people-centred strategies to protect mental health as temperatures climb," Dr Bi says. “This isn't just about health – it's about building stronger, more resilient communities for the future.”.
