To tackle the environment and mental health crises, we need a better understanding of how our environments impact mental well-being. While we know a lot about how pollution and extreme weather affect mental health, we need to analyze these findings together and establish EnvironMental Health as an interdisciplinary research field for greater effectiveness. Mental health issues heavily burden society and understanding both the positive and negative environmental impacts on mental health can guide future research and funding, uniting applied and academic research from different areas.
We formed an interdisciplinary team and created a comprehensive framework to organize existing research. We conducted a scoping review of reviews to efficiently identify well-studied areas and those that need more attention. Conditions like autism, ADHD, and mood disorders are often studied in relation to environmental stressors. However, impactful issues like schizophrenia and substance use disorders have not received the same level of scrutiny. Deeper analysis of our findings could improve our understanding of environmental causes and reveal ways to use the environment for prevention and treatment.
This article advocates for better environmental management and stewardship to reduce the serious societal and economic impacts of mental health issues globally. We also want to encourage researchers to explore under-researched areas, opening new avenues for a healthy, sustainable future.