Aggressive patient behavior on mental health wards may be increased by heat waves, as per a study at the ZfP Südwürttemberg and Ulm University in Germany, published in the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ BJPsych Open journal.
The study team looked at local weather data and incident reporting data to analyze the impact of hot weather on mental health inpatient wards from six German mental health hospitals and covered 13 years (2007-2019, 207 days over 30°C), 1,007 beds and 164,435 admissions. All the hospitals were built in line with modern building standards, with none having to air-condition.
On average 15% more aggressive incidents were found on days over 30°C (9.7 per day) when compared to days under 30°C (8.4 per day). A clear relationship between the temperature of hot days (those over 30°C) and the number of aggressive incidents were also reported by the study.
‘Aggressive patient behavior in mental health wards may be increased by heat waves. This highlights the impact of the climate on mental health services and states that increased aggression is an indicator of increased distress and an environment.’
The hotter weather was directly associated with the higher the rate of incidents, reaching a peak of 11.1 on the very hottest days (over 33.5°C). The study found no equivalent correlation between the temperature on hot days and the use of restrictive practices by hospital staff.
“These findings highlight an underappreciated impact of the climate emergency on mental health services. Increased aggression is an indicator of increased distress and an environment that is failing to help patients recover. Urgent action is now needed, to replicate the findings of this study using more measurements within mental health hospitals, to invest in those hospitals, and to tackle the climate crisis. Mental health patients deserve better,” says Professor Tilman Steinert, from Ulm University.
Source: Medindia
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