Forums » Open clinical » Psychiatry » Does city life cause psychosis?
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Does city life cause psychosis?
posted at 11/10/2012 10:33 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1444
First: 7/4/2011 Last: 21/5/2013 |
There’s an article in Nature which looks at the mental health of city dwellers. It references a study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry which published findings which found that the incidence of schizophrenia had more or less doubled between 1965 and 1997 in Camberwell, London, despite no significant rise in the population. I am not sure if this definitely points to city life inducing mental health problems – perhaps it is more emphasis on diagnosis? Nevertheless, there are question marks hanging over the impact that city life has on our health. The article claims that back in 1950 one-third of the world’s population lived in cities but now it is half. Cities often induce stress because there are so many people and so many things going on, especially on a daily commute. The article claims that from an evolutionary standpoint, the physiological stress response helped mammals to survive, by acting as a trigger to keep us moving and reacting to the situation. But what happens when this heightened sense of stress continues for longer periods of time? Could this be damaging for the mental health of people who live in cities? “Problems arise when the stress response doesn't switch off. Stress-hormone levels that stay too high for too long cause high blood pressure and suppress the immune system. And, although the mechanisms are unknown, scientists agree that severe or prolonged stress also raise the risk of psychiatric disease — most brutally in those who have a genetic predisposition, and when the stress occurs while the brain is still developing.” Researchers are now going use functional brain imaging and digital monitoring to see how people living in cities and rural areas differ in the way that their brains process stressful situations. There has often been a suspicion about city life being stressful but it would be really interesting to know more about what impact city life has on our mental health. http://www.nature.com/news/stress-and-the-city-urban-decay-1.11556 |
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Re: Does city life cause psychosis?
posted at 11/10/2012 4:36 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1283
First: 9/12/2011 Last: 21/5/2013 |
Matthew, there is a branch of Psychology called Eco-Psychology, and this field investigates our human interaction with nature, and the manifestations of mental and emotiaonal disease, as well as physical disease caused by lack of connection with nature, and the outdoors. http://www.ecopsych.com/ There is a great deal of study that we, as humans have become too Urbanized by the city dwelling life style, and we have lost our roots of living in and amongst nature. DuaneF |
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Re: Does city life cause psychosis?
posted at 11/10/2012 11:49 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 578
First: 8/6/2011 Last: 19/5/2013 |
It is an interesting subject Although not all the people have the same conditions of life , even if they are living in the village. For example life in a pretty remote village can be very relaxing to a bank employee but very stressfull for somebody who has loans to the bank and is risking to loose his house... ( of course he would had the same stress level and in the city ) Although cities have a lot of people , loneliness is much bigger there . Villages have a small number of people but you are never a stranger there even if you are a British and you living in Greece or inverse. Maybe life in the cities would look more like that of the village , if people there , were not strangers of each other. In the other hand loneliness is a cure for some... By the way I remember in the school we were reading a writer who was affirming that all the world turns into a small village And i am thinking now ' yes it is exactly the same as in the villages ' where is valuable the saying that ''poverty brings moan '' and '' to die the neighbor's goat ''... |
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Re: Does city life cause psychosis?
posted at 12/10/2012 2:23 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 154
First: 19/1/2012 Last: 18/5/2013 |
It is definitely true that there are higher rate of psychosis in cities but that doesn't necessarily imply causality. I think the higher rate in cities is due to a mixture of things, possibly stress being one of them, but I think there are two really important factors - One is a phenomenon known as 'social drift', where with chronic mental ill health people tend to not attain the same level of social class due to long periods of illness and inability to work. It might be that being impoverished or unemployed or in a poor housing situation caused the mental illness but is often thought to have been more likely to have happened the other way round, with the illness first. Then in looking for employment, housing etc. people tend to 'drift' towards larger cities, and this happens no less in people with mental health. The other thing is that we (in the UK, but I'm sure across the world) have a higher tolerance and acceptance for unusual or strange things happening, or odd behaviour in big towns than in small villages - I always think of this as the 'Hot Fuzz' phenomenon - if you have ever seen the film? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Fuzz) It's a very funny film but has sort of serious undertones - a group of people in the village are killing anyone who doesn't fit the "Village of the Year" image of the small village in Gloucestershire where the film is set - teenagers wearing hoodies who are graffiting the village, the 'living statues' and jugglers who were busking on the street, the man who has built an ugly new mansion that doesn't fit in with the local architecture. It makes me laugh mostly because I come from Gloucestershire and then moved to London to work in psychiatry, but there is no doubt that there is a much higher tolerance for psychosis and bizarre behaviour in inner city London than in rural areas of the UK. The threshold for detention by the police under section 136 of the Mental Health Act (the power the police have to detain someone they believe may be psychiatrically unwell) and for admission to psychiatry wards here is also much higher. |
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Re: Does city life cause psychosis?
posted at 12/10/2012 4:05 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1266
First: 13/4/2010 Last: 21/5/2013 |
Matthew - according to my local consultant psychiatrist the Highlands have the highest per capita incidence of severe mental health disorders in Scotland and my own neck of the woods has one of the highest per capita incidences in Highland and we are about as remote and rural as you can get without going to St Kilda! The other issue of course is how have the demographics of Camberwell changes in those years - has the population becomes more mixed; has the standard of living declined; etc. Without that kind of sociology approach the statistic you quote is fairly meaningless really. |
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