Urban Life and Its Impact on Mental Health

More than half of the world’s population now lives in cities. Cities have both health risks and benefits, but mental health is negatively affected. Mood and anxiety disorders are more prevalent in city dwellers and the incidence of schizophrenia is strongly increased in people born and raised in cities.

Although these findings have been widely attributed to the urban social environment, the neural processes that could mediate such associations are unknown. Recent studies shed some light on the topic. German researchers searched for objective evidence that city living affects the brain.

Healthy young adults who were raised, or currently live, in urban or in rural areas were enrolled; they performed two types of arithmetic tests under imposed social stress (being told during testing that they were performing poorly) and another cognitive test while under no social stress.

The brain activation was measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging. During testing – but not during stress-free testing – activation of the amygdala (fear response) was correlated closely with the size of the city or town in which a person currently resided. Activation of another part of the brain regulating amygdala also correlated tightly with the size of the city in which a person currently resided.

In turn activation of that part of the brain correlated strongly with upbringing in a large city. These results were unchanged by adjustments for many other possible factors such as age, education, income, and marital status.

Overall, in stressful situations, city dwellers exhibited different brain activations than did rural residents. The studies suggest that two parts of the brain that are central to the stress response are activated differently by stress, based on whether people currently live in or were raised in urban versus rural areas.

Here’s another interesting study on “Brains in the City: Neurobiological effects of urbanization”. Conclusions include: “Research suggests that populations living in urban environments may be at increased risk for mood and anxiety disorders. Key features of the urban environment have been shown to matter for psychiatric illness, including socioeconomic features of the neighborhood such as concentrated poverty, features of the physical environment such as access to green space, and the social fabric that characterizes urban neighborhoods.”

Another study “Effects of urban living environments on mental health in adults” investigated the relationships between urban environments and psychiatric symptoms. The findings suggested that different environmental profiles of urban living may influence specific psychiatric symptom groups through distinct neurobiological pathways.

Food for thoughts indeed.

Good health and blessings