Association of Psychiatric Emergency Visits and Warm Ambient Temperature during Pregnancy: A Time-Stratified Case-Crossover Study.

Background: Acute exposure to high ambient temperature and heat waves during the warm season has been linked with psychiatric disorders. Emerging research has shown that pregnant people, due to physiological and psychological changes, may be more sensitive to extreme heat, and acute exposure has been linked to increased risk of pregnancy complications; however, few studies have examined psychiatric complications.

Objective: Our objective was to examine the association between acute exposure to warm ambient temperatures and emergency department (ED) visits for mental disorders during pregnancy.

Short-term changes in mental health help-seeking behaviors following exposure to multiple social stressors and a natural disaster.

In 2020, unprecedented circumstances led to significant mental health consequences. Individuals faced mental health stressors that extended beyond the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including widespread social unrest following the murder of George Floyd, an intense hurricane season in the Atlantic, and the politically divisive 2020 election. The objective of this analysis was to consider changes in help-seeking behavior following exposure to multiple social stressors and a natural disaster.

A Difference-In Difference Analysis of the South Carolina 2015 Extreme Floods and the Association with Maternal Health.

Research documenting the public health impacts of natural disasters often focuses on adults and children. Little research has examined the influence of extreme events, like floods, on maternal health, and less has examined the effect of disasters on maternal indicators like severe maternal morbidity (SMM) or unexpected outcomes of labor and delivery that result in significant short-or long-term consequences to a woman's health. The aim of this study is to identify the impacts of the 2015 flood events on maternal health outcomes in South Carolina, USA.

Socio-Environmental Determinants of Mental and Behavioral Disorders in Youth: A Machine Learning Approach.

Growing evidence indicates that extreme environmental conditions in summer months have an adverse impact on mental and behavioral disorders (MBD), but there is limited research looking at youth populations. The objective of this study was to apply machine learning approaches to identify key variables that predict MBD-related emergency room (ER) visits in youths in select North Carolina cities among adolescent populations. Daily MBD-related ER visits, which totaled over 42,000 records, were paired with daily environmental conditions, as well as sociodemographic variables to determine if certain conditions lead to higher vulnerability to exacerbated mental health disorders.

Cascading disasters and mental health: The February 2021 winter storm and power crisis in Texas, USA.

In February 2021, the state of Texas and large parts of the US were affected by a severe cold air outbreak and winter weather event. This event resulted in large-scale power outages and cascading impacts, including limited access to potable water, multiple days without electricity, and large-scale infrastructure damage. Little is known about the mental health implications of these events, as most research has predominantly focused on the mental health effects of exposure to hurricanes, wildfires, or other natural disasters that are more commonly found in the summer months.

Examining Hurricane Ida's Impact on Mental Health: Results From a Quasi-Experimental Analysis.

Limited research has evaluated the mental health effects during compounding disasters (e.g., a hurricane occurring during a pandemic), and few studies have examined post-disaster mental health with alternative data sources like crisis text lines.

Spatio-Temporal Clustering of Adolescent Bereavement in the United States During the Extended Response to COVID-19: A Follow-Up Study.

Purpose: This follow-up study investigated the spatio-temporal clustering of adolescent bereavement during the extended response to COVID-19 from October 2020-January 2022 in the continental United States.

Methods: Deidentified and anonymized bereavement data from Crisis Text Line (CTL), a text-based crisis intervention service, and SaTScan cluster analysis were used to identify space-time clustering of bereavement among adolescents, aged 24 years and less, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Results: Clustering of bereavement conversations occurred during waves of high COVID-19 case and death counts, with the highest risk occurring in the Southeastern United States during the fall of 2020 (relative risk: 5.