Studies Big cities make people sick

Big cities make people sick

08/30/2013

For many people, life in the city has a negative impact on the psyche, in which the physicians agree. But which factors are responsible for the health change can not be determined exactly. Certainly, the noise and coexistence in tight space contribute to this. Cities do not come to you „Quiet“. There is always something going on. Especially for young people, a reason to move into the big city. It can even be seen on the human brain whether he grew up in the big city or in the countryside.

For Mazda Adli Head of the Research Department Affective Disorders at the Berlin Charité and Head Physician of the Fliedner Clinic, the duration stimulation primarily means stress for humans. For years, the physician has been investigating how far big cities affect mental health. "Presumably, it's the mix of social density and social isolation that makes up city stress," he says.

About half of humanity currently lives in cities. ascending trend
Various studies came to the conclusion that city dwellers are twice as likely to be ill with schizophrenia. For depression, it is 1.4 times compared to rural dwellers (Os, Nature 2010). "There's even a dose-response ratio: the bigger the city, the higher the schizophrenia risk, which makes it comparable to cannabis use, which is a known risk factor for schizophrenia," says Adli. Addictions, on the other hand, occur equally frequently in town and country.

Big cities are changing people
"There are two theses, one is that the city is changing people, and the other is that labile people are more likely to move into the city, but a number of studies show that the former is the first," says Adli. "Cities are changing the stress-dependent emotion processing."

A study from Mannheim (Lederbogen, Nature 2011) shows that the brain of city dwellers reacts differently and significantly more sensitively to negative stress than that of small diners. The difference becomes even clearer with rural dwellers. This was evident when solving solving difficult math tasks plus critical feedback -

"The longer a person has spent in the city, perhaps even as a child, the lower his or her ability to control emotions, and that vulnerability remains - even as you move into the countryside as an adult." City life does not necessarily make you ill. Of course, genetic factors and environmental factors also play a role.

For Adli, stress is relevant to health if the individual does not feel restricted in space. This, coupled with the feeling of being unable to control one's surroundings, has a negative effect. "That's the toxic mix." Presumably, for example, migrants living in a socially deprived neighborhood would be less likely to be mentally ill than those living alone in a better-off environment.

More collaboration between city planners and psychiatrists
Prof. Andreas Heinz, director of the Charité Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, sees the active social exclusion of immigrants as an urgent problem. In London, the number of mental illnesses among Caribbean migrants is eight times that of the natives. "If too much grown, social structures are saved away, the safety net breaks at some point." With the gentrification of streets and entire neighborhoods not only old-established residents would be displaced, but also their contact points would be eliminated. In return, this means that youth centers, counseling centers and opportunities for meetings must be kept open.

Changes in urban planning can counteract this. For example, wider sidewalks may provide space for a bench in front of the house. More green spaces could be used as meeting places where social exchange is created and promoted together. This can counteract social isolation

"Any chat with your neighbors will do you good," says Adli, and Heinz points out, "A park that's being barbecued will bring more than a perfect green space in which 'treading grass is prohibited." City planners and architects should work more closely with psychiatrists, according to researchers. Prof. Florian Holsboer, director of the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (Munich) advises: "Everyone must be aware of his individual health risk and decide whether he wants to seize the opportunity that opens up the city life." (Fr)