https://www.science.org/content/article/schizophrenia-pinpointed-key-factor-heat-deaths
The mental illness tripled the risk of death during a searing 2021 heat wave, researchers find
4 Likes
Antipsychotics cause heat intolerance so I’m not surprised.
4 Likes
Wow, I didn’t know that many people died during the heat wave. Those are some shocking numbers.
I remember that heat wave well:
The first thing I met was a fly with a buzz
And the sky with no clouds
The heat was hot and the ground was dry
But the air was full of sound
2 Likes
that’s it, next time we go to see my brother and they want to swim on a pontoon boat on the lake in 103 weather and I have to stay on the boat hot as ever because I can’t get in the water…long story…anyways, the heat could kill me I’m very sensitive to the heat…no way…I’ll stay at my bro’s house in the air conditioning while they cruise the lake.
2 Likes
Makes sense to me. I sweat like crazy constantly since being on certain meds. Hate summer because of it. Have to have an ice cold shower after gettinf home from every errand or anything.
1 Like
Kind of like me walking in the corpus christi processional in sweltering heat during the height of a Midwest USA summer. INSANE!!
1 Like
I wonder if hyponatremia can play a role, as people with psych conditions may have polydipsia (like me) and some psych meds can predispose to hyponatremia (like venlafaxine which I’m taking for my depression), and hot weather causes one to sweat and lose some sodium.
# Increased Risk of Drug-Induced Hyponatremia during High Temperatures – I don’t know whether this study is high-quality, it just came up on Google.
# Current and Future Burdens of Heat-Related Hyponatremia: A Nationwide Register-Based Study, with a quote:
Results: The incidence of hyponatremia was stable at 0.3 per million person-days from -10 to 10 °C, but increased rapidly at 24-hour mean temperatures above 15 °C, with 2.26 hospitalizations per million days at the highest recorded temperature of 25 °C. Women and elderly carried the greatest risk, with an incidence of 35 hospitalizations per million days in individuals ≥ 80 years of age on the hottest days, corresponding to a 15-fold increase in incidence compared with cool days. A future 1 or 2 °C increase in mean temperature is expected to increase the incidence of hyponatremia by 6.3% and 13.9%, respectively.
Conclusion: The risk of hospitalization due to hyponatremia increases rapidly at temperatures above 15 °C, indicating a threshold effect. Over the next decades, rising global temperatures are expected to increase the inpatient burden of hyponatremia by approximately 10%. Strategies for protecting vulnerable groups are necessary to reduce this risk.
# Possible Biological Mechanisms Linking Mental Health and Heat-A Contemplative Review (2018), free fulltext available, a quote:
An increase in the number of cases of drug-induced hyponatremia (a condition of abnormally low blood sodium levels below 130 mEq/L) have been reported during the warm seasons in Sweden [76]. Consumption of the most widely prescribed antidepressants, SSRIs, is known to be associated with inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion (SIADH) [77,78,79], which is characterized by hyponatremia, either caused by overstimulation of the release of ADH, or by increased renal responsiveness to ADH [80,81]. The mechanism by which SSRIs cause hyponatremia remains unclear, but it has been suggested that, SSRIs, to some degree, affect noradrenaline reuptake. The resulting increase in noradrenaline levels could stimulate ADH release via α-adrenergic receptors and lead to SIADH induction [81]. Cases suggestive of hyponatremia secondary to SIADH have been reported with the use of fluoxetine, paroxetine, sertraline, fluvoxamine, and citalopram.
# Antipsychotics and severe hyponatremia: A Swedish population–based case–control study (2019), only a slight increase was seen:
Results
Compared to controls, the adjusted OR (95%CI) for hospitalization due to hyponatremia was for any antipsychotic 1.67(1.5–1.86). Individuals on FGA were more likely to experience severe hyponatremia (2.12[1.83–2.46]) than those on any SGA (1.32[1.15–1.51]). No increased risks, neither as newly initiated nor ongoing therapy, were found for risperidone (0.86[0.56–1.31] and 0.83[0.67–1.02]) and aripiprazole (1.16[0.30–4.46] and 0.62[0.27–1.34]), respectively.
1 Like