The term, “solastalgia” was coined by Australian philosopher, Glenn Albrecht, and it refers to the homesickness we feel when the world around us is changing. More than ever, today’s young people are feeling the mental stressors of climate change.
Learning Objectives: By the end of this episode, pediatric residents will be able to…
1) List the short- and long-term effects of climate change on mental health
2) Recall interactions between antipsychotic medications and thermoregulation
3) Recognize and counsel patients on eco-anxiety
Hosts
Sophia Gauthier, MD, MSPediatric Hospital Medicine Fellow at Dell Medical School at University of Texas at Austin
Graham Aufricht, MDPediatric Emergency Medicine Fellow at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin
[00:00:00] Sophia Gauthier: Welcome back. I am Sophia Gauthier. And I’m Graham Aufricht. We are pediatricians and hosts of this podcast, Clinicians, Kids, and the Changing Climate.
[00:00:11] Graham Aufricht: Today we are addressing climate change and mental health, specifically answering the question, what are the psychological impacts of climate change on pediatric
[00:00:20] Sophia Gauthier: mental health?
So the impacts of climate on mental health can be divided into the direct effects and then the awareness of climate.
[00:00:30] Graham Aufricht: So what do you mean by
[00:00:31] Sophia Gauthier: the direct effects? So as discussed in our last episode, climate change is linked with increasing incidence of extreme weather events, whether that includes storms like hurricanes and their accompanying flooding, or extreme heat events.
that contribute to longer and more severe wildfire seasons. All of this can disrupt basic systems and create things like housing, utility, and food instability.
[00:00:52] Graham Aufricht: In more severe cases, people can lose their homes entirely and become displaced.
[00:00:56] Sophia Gauthier: Displacement as a result of natural disasters is classified as an adverse childhood event, or an ACE.
These are known to have lasting mental health impacts, negatively impacting school learning and behavior. Spikes in PTSD, depression, and anxiety occur following climate events, and this should come as no surprise. So what
[00:01:14] Graham Aufricht: about substance use?
[00:01:16] Sophia Gauthier: It’s a really good question. So the link between climate disasters and substance use is unclear, but it’s likely thought to be analogous to that between general trauma and
[00:01:24] Graham Aufricht: substance use.
So I’ve read some interesting literature on the links between exposure to heat waves and aggression.
[00:01:31] Sophia Gauthier: Yeah, so most of this data exists in the adult literature, but there is correlative data to suggest that increases in ambient temperature, especially above certain thresholds, is linked with increases in externalizing behaviors such as aggression.
There’s also an association between heat waves and increases in ED visits for mental health conditions, national suicide rates, as well as deaths due to unintentional and intentional injuries for both adults and adolescents aged 15 to 18. Wow.
[00:02:00] Graham Aufricht: So, do we know why these associations
[00:02:02] Sophia Gauthier: exist? Honestly, not really.
There are some theories out there, but it’s a little bit beyond the scope of this podcast.
[00:02:09] Graham Aufricht: So we’ve talked about the direct impacts of climate events on mental health. What about children with pre existing mental health disorders?
[00:02:17] Sophia Gauthier: So interestingly, Some antipsychotics affect the body’s thermoregulation abilities, putting children at increased risk of hyperthermia in extreme heat events.
So
[00:02:27] Graham Aufricht: which medication should we know
[00:02:29] Sophia Gauthier: about? So anticholinergic antipsychotic medications such as lanzapine. Also known as Zyprexa or Cotipine, brand name Seroquel, can interfere with thermoregulation by inhibiting sweating. Both of those drugs, as well as many other antipsychotics like Haloperidol and Aripiprazole, also have anti dopaminergic activity, which can increase the body’s temperature set point.
Some medications can also increase the risk of dehydration by reducing thirst, such as SSRIs, Clonidine, Carbamazepine, and Valproic acid. This sounds
[00:03:04] Graham Aufricht: like a good intervention point for educating our parents about proactively preventing heat related illnesses.
[00:03:10] Sophia Gauthier: Additionally, the good and bad thing about climate and kids is that the younger generation is a little bit more aware of and concerned about climate change than adults.
This may make them more receptive to anticipatory guidance, but also more at risk to anxiety about climate change. I’ve heard a
[00:03:24] Graham Aufricht: lot of terms regarding this concept. Echophobia. echo anxiety, ecological grief, and climate distress.
[00:03:32] Sophia Gauthier: Have you heard of the term solastalgia? Solastalgia? No, never. So, solastalgia was coined by an Australian philosopher named Glenn Albrecht, and it comes from the Latin word for solace and the Greek root for pain.
And this refers to the type of homesickness that we feel when the world around us, or our home, is changing. Are people studying solastalgia? So recently, a group of researchers set out to study soul nostalgia in young people. They conducted a survey of 10, 000 young people across 10 different nations.
They found that more than 59 percent of participants globally were very or extremely worried about the impacts of climate change, and 84 percent were at least moderately worried.
[00:04:18] Graham Aufricht: How can we as pediatricians help kids cope with eco
[00:04:21] Sophia Gauthier: anxiety? I think the younger generation is already really good at problem focused coping, so engaging in actions like eating less meat, promoting sustainable behaviors in school and communities, and building movements to divest from fossil fuels.
[00:04:36] Graham Aufricht: What is the data behind problem based coping?
[00:04:39] Sophia Gauthier: So there isn’t too much research on mental health and climate specific advocacy, but we do know that activism can prevent feelings of helplessness and increase a sense of empowerment. However, it can cause Stress as well due to potential public criticism.
Feelings of burnout when change is slow to enact. However, in general, higher pro-environmental behavior is associated with greater wellbeing, possibly because it satisfies basic psychological needs like autonomy and competence and relatedness.
[00:05:10] Graham Aufricht: Okay, so what can
[00:05:11] Sophia Gauthier: we do? So in the clinical setting, I think we as pediatricians can help normalize young people’s eco anxiety and avoid pathologizing it, unless of course it meets criteria for known mental health disorders.
And on that note, in the wake of natural disasters, we really should be cognizant of screening for things like depression and PTSD and know how to offer local mental health resources.
[00:05:33] Graham Aufricht: We’ll talk more about this in the last episode. But we can, as a field, continue to validate concerns by listening to the younger generation and taking their ideas into account and improving the way our systems interact with the environment.
[00:05:45] Sophia Gauthier: And that is the absolute perfect primer for our last episode. So join us as we wrap up the podcast and talk about healthcare as an industry climate. This podcast was researched and written by myself, Dr. Sophia Gauthier. A massive thank you to my friend and co host, Dr. Graham Aufricht. The podcast was produced by the fantastic audio engineers at the University of Texas at Austin Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services team with funding via a pediatric medical education grant and instructional support from the Medical Education Fellowship at the University of Texas Dell Medical School.