Unveiling climate distress: Examining the psychological impact of adverse weather events in India - A systematic review.

Abstract

Background: Climate distress is a psychological reaction to adverse weather events and climate change. These events can increase people's vulnerability to develop psychiatric disorders like anxiety, depression, and PTSD particularly in disaster-prone regions like India.

Aim: To explore the relationship between climate distress and psychological impact with a particular emphasis on women, elderly, and other at risk populations who owing to their health vulnerabilities, lack of resources or social roles that make them dependent on others, experience stress in the face of climate change. We synthesized findings from 75 studies involving 8,895,217 individuals, to understand the psychological impact of events like floods, cyclones, tsunamis, and air pollution. All related studies conducted in India from inception of the web search engines to December 9, 2024 were included in this study.

Method: This systematic review was conducted as per the PRISMA guidelines. Studies were identified from CINAHL, PubMed, Scopus, and EMBASE and data was extracted using a custom extraction form.

Result: We report a high prevalence of mental health conditions like PTSD, anxiety, and depression after extreme weather events like floods, cyclones, tsunamis, and air pollution. Subclinical conditions like sleep disturbances, stress, cognitive decline, and fear; along with, positive mental health outcomes like resilience, pro-environmental behavior, appreciation for life, and post traumatic growth post such events were commonly reported. Female gender, older age, financial instability, low education levels, and disaster exposure were the major risk factors. Social support, high education, and high socioeconomic status were the protective factors.

Conclusion: Findings imply the need for having practical strategies for community-based resilience for the at risk population, starting at policy planning levels to address climate-related psychological distress. Our review highlights the need for further research to define and measure climate distress and psychological impact in the context of climate-induced heat, particularly in underrepresented regions.