Climate Psychiatry: How Extreme Heat Impacts the Warming Brain
Explore how extreme heat impacts the brain with Dr. Elizabeth Haase. Learn how climate change acts as a threat multiplier for mental health and emotional regulation.
Best quote from Climate Psychiatry: How Extreme Heat Impacts the Warming Brain
The paradox of our time is that the very thing we are losing—nature—is the thing we need most to stay mentally well enough to save it.
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Summary of key concepts from Elizabeth Haase’s Handbook of Climate Psychiatry and Psychotherapy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Climate Psychiatry is a field that examines how environmental changes, particularly extreme heat, act as a neurobiological disruptor. Dr. Elizabeth Haase explains that as temperatures rise, the human brain struggles with emotional regulation and cognitive function. This shift is not merely physical discomfort but a fundamental change in how the brain processes stress, making climate change a significant threat multiplier for global mental health and social stability.
According to research in the Handbook of Climate Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, there is a direct correlation between rising temperatures and aggression. For every standard deviation increase in heat, data shows a 4 percent rise in interpersonal violence and a 14 percent jump in group conflict. This suggests that heatwaves significantly impair our collective psyche and ability to relate to one another, leading to increased social instability.
Dr. Elizabeth Haase is a clinical professor of psychiatry and a leading expert in the neurobiology of heat. She has authored a 2025 manual for clinicians and contributed to the Handbook of Climate Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. Her work focuses on how environmental factors like hazy skies and prolonged heatwaves trigger psychiatric shifts, impacting everything from individual heart rates to broad cognitive functions across the population.
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