News by Subject Medicine & Health

Based on analysis of large population data sets from both the United States and Denmark, a new study found poor air quality associated with increased rates of bipolar disorder and major depression in both countries.

New research shows that visitors to urban parks use happier words and express less negativity on Twitter than before their visit -- and that their elevated mood lasts for up to four hours. The effect is so strong that it's equivalent to the mood spike on Christmas, the happiest day each year on Twitter. With increasing urbanization and mood disorders, this research may have powerful implications for public health and urban planning.

Researchers are increasingly studying the effects of environmental insults on psychiatric and neurological conditions, motivated by emerging evidence from environmental events like the record-breaking smog that choked New Delhi two years ago. The results of a new study publishing Aug. 20 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by an international group of researchers using large data sets from the US and Denmark suggests a possible link between exposure to environmental pollution and an increase in the prevalence of psychiatric disorders.

Montana State University's Dave McWethy is the lead author on a paper published in the journal Nature Sustainability that outlines best practices for social and ecological resilience in a Western landscape where wildfires are becoming inevitable.

Early-life exposure to the mineral manganese disrupts the way different areas of the brain involved in cognitive ability and motor control connect in teenagers, Mount Sinai researchers report in a study published in PLOS ONE in August.

Long-term exposure to air pollution was linked to increases in emphysema between 2000 and 2018, according to a new study funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), both part of the National Institutes of Health.

Researchers from the University of Kansas analyzed thousands of climate change articles from 45 countries and territories around the world to determine how they frame the issue, and differences were revealed mostly by the wealth of the nation.