TY - JOUR
T1 - A Scoping Review of Non-Occupational Exposures to Environmental Pollutants and Adult Depression, Anxiety, and Suicide
AU - Dickerson, Aisha S.
AU - Wu, Alexander C.
AU - Liew, Zeyan
AU - Weisskopf, Marc
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Scott Lapinski, Digital Resource and Services Librarian at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, for his counsel and constant assistance in honing our literature review. We also thank Julie Goodman for extending the literature search and Maggie Mittleman and Christian Hoover for checking our review for missed articles. No authors received compensation for their participation in this project. All authors declare no financial interest. Drs. Weisskopf, Wu, and Dickerson had full access to all of the references in the review and take responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of the review. This work was supported by NIH grant P30 ES000002. Dr. Wu was supported by the NIOSH ERC training-grant, T42 OH008416. Dr. Dickerson was supported in part by a National Institutes of Health training grant T32 ES007069. Dr. Liew was partly supported by the NIH/NIEHS Pathway to Independence Award (K99ES026729/R00ES026729).
Funding Information:
We thank Scott Lapinski, Digital Resource and Services Librarian at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, for his counsel and constant assistance in honing our literature review. We also thank Julie Goodman for extending the literature search and Maggie Mittleman and Christian Hoover for checking our review for missed articles. No authors received compensation for their participation in this project. All authors declare no financial interest. Drs. Weisskopf, Wu, and Dickerson had full access to all of the references in the review and take responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of the review. This work was supported by NIH grant P30 ES000002. Dr. Wu was supported by the NIOSH ERC training-grant, T42 OH008416. Dr. Dickerson was supported in part by a National Institutes of Health training grant T32 ES007069. Dr. Liew was partly supported by the NIH/NIEHS Pathway to Independence Award (K99ES026729/R00ES026729).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
PY - 2020/9/1
Y1 - 2020/9/1
N2 - Purpose of Review: Despite a call for better understanding of the role of environmental pollutant influences on mental health and the tremendous public health burden of mental health, this issue receives far less attention than many other effects of pollutants. Here we summarize the body of literature on non-occupational environmental pollutant exposures and adult depression, anxiety, and suicide—in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and PsychINFO through the end of year 2018. Recent Findings: One hundred twelve articles met our criteria for further review. Of these, we found 88 articles on depression, 33 on anxiety, and 22 on suicide (31 articles covered multiple outcomes). The earliest article was published in 1976, and the most frequent exposure of interest was air pollution (n = 33), followed by secondhand smoke (n = 20), metals (n = 18), noise (n = 17), and pesticides (n = 10). Other exposures studied less frequently included radiation, magnetic fields, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), volatile organic compounds, solvents, and reactive sulfur compounds. Summary: The current literature, although limited, clearly suggests many kinds of environmental exposures may be risk factors for depression, anxiety, and suicide. For several pollutants, important limitations exist with many of the studies. Gaps in the body of research include a need for more longitudinal, life-course studies, studies that can measure cumulative exposures as well as shorter-term exposures, studies that reduce the possibility of reverse causation, and mechanistic studies focused on neurotoxic exposures.
AB - Purpose of Review: Despite a call for better understanding of the role of environmental pollutant influences on mental health and the tremendous public health burden of mental health, this issue receives far less attention than many other effects of pollutants. Here we summarize the body of literature on non-occupational environmental pollutant exposures and adult depression, anxiety, and suicide—in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and PsychINFO through the end of year 2018. Recent Findings: One hundred twelve articles met our criteria for further review. Of these, we found 88 articles on depression, 33 on anxiety, and 22 on suicide (31 articles covered multiple outcomes). The earliest article was published in 1976, and the most frequent exposure of interest was air pollution (n = 33), followed by secondhand smoke (n = 20), metals (n = 18), noise (n = 17), and pesticides (n = 10). Other exposures studied less frequently included radiation, magnetic fields, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), volatile organic compounds, solvents, and reactive sulfur compounds. Summary: The current literature, although limited, clearly suggests many kinds of environmental exposures may be risk factors for depression, anxiety, and suicide. For several pollutants, important limitations exist with many of the studies. Gaps in the body of research include a need for more longitudinal, life-course studies, studies that can measure cumulative exposures as well as shorter-term exposures, studies that reduce the possibility of reverse causation, and mechanistic studies focused on neurotoxic exposures.
KW - Anxiety
KW - Depression
KW - Environmental pollutants
KW - Mental health
KW - Suicide
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85086462682&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85086462682&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s40572-020-00280-7
DO - 10.1007/s40572-020-00280-7
M3 - Review article
C2 - 32533365
AN - SCOPUS:85086462682
VL - 7
SP - 256
EP - 271
JO - Current environmental health reports
JF - Current environmental health reports
SN - 2196-5412
IS - 3
ER -