Health Effects: Mental health

The links between mental health conditions and climate factors have received less attention in research to date. Mental health conditions account for about one seventh of the global burden of disease (Prince et al., 2007) and it was predicted in the first global burden of disease assessment (Murray and Lopez, 1996) that by 2020 mental health problems (particularly depression among older people) could become one of the most prominent components of the global burden of disease. An analysis (Mathers and Loncar, 2006) indicates that the mental health burden may become number two in the ranking of global health problems by 2030.

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