(CNN) — Scientists have cautioned that soaring climate temperatures around the globe could put our physical health at risk, such as with the spread of certain infectious diseases or food shortages.
Now, a new study sheds light on the possible mental health implications of climate change.
The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change on Monday, suggests that when there are abnormally hot temperatures in a month, there also tend to be higher suicide rates for that month, compared with the suicide rate that occurs when the month has normal average temperatures.
Then, when using the data to make predictions, the study suggests that suicide rates in the United States and Mexico could rise with each 1-degree Celsius increase in a month’s average temperature.
“So we take a specific location and we take a specific month, and we compare cooler versions of that month to hotter versions of that month, and we ask, ‘Are suicide rates different during those two months?’ We indeed find that they are,” said Marshall Burke, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth System Science at Stanford University and lead author of the study.
“We find a very consistent relationship between temperature increases and increases in suicide risk,” Burke said, adding that the study findings in no way suggest that temperature is the only — or most important — factor associated with suicide.
“Suicide is a very complex phenomenon. It’s still not that well-understood, and there are many other risk factors beyond climate that are important for suicide risk,” he said.
Suicide was the 10th leading cause of death overall in the United States, claiming the lives of nearly 45,000 people in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Globally, close to 800,000 people die by suicide each year, and 78% of global suicides occur in low- and middle-income countries, according to the World Health Organization.