{"id":30617,"date":"2017-11-13T12:48:01","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T07:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=30617"},"modified":"2022-12-13T13:30:22","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T08:30:22","slug":"city-dwellers-at-higher-risk-of-psychiatric-illnesses-than-country-dwellers-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=30617","title":{"rendered":"City dwellers at higher risk of psychiatric illnesses than country dwellers: study"},"content":{"rendered":"

BERLIN Nov 13 (TNS):\u00a0<\/strong> City dwellers are at a higher risk of psychiatric illnesses such as depression, anxiety disorders, and schizophrenia than country dwellers, a study conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development found.<\/p>\n

Comparisons show higher activity levels in city dwellers\u2019 than in country dwellers\u2019 amygdala \u2014 a central nucleus in the brain that plays an important role in stress processing and reactions to danger.<\/p>\n

A research team led by psychologist Simone K\u00fchn has examined which effects nature near people\u2019s homes such as forest, urban green, or wasteland has on stress-processing brain regions such as the amygdala.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudies of people in the countryside have already shown that living close to nature is good for their mental health and well-being. We therefore decided to examine city dwellers,\u201d explains Simone K\u00fchn.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the researchers found a relationship between place of residence and brain health: those city dwellers living close to a forest were more likely to show indications of a physiologically healthy amygdala structure and were therefore presumably better able to cope with stress.<\/p>\n

This effect remained stable when differences in educational qualifications and income levels were controlled for. However, it was not possible to find an association between the examined brain regions and urban green, water, or wasteland.<\/p>\n

With these data, it is not possible to distinguish whether living close to a forest really has positive effects on the amygdala or whether people with a healthier amygdala might be more likely to select residential areas close to a forest. Based on present knowledge, however, the researchers regard the first explanation as more probable.<\/p>\n

Further longitudinal studies are necessary to accumulate evidence.<\/p>\n

The participants in the present study are from the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II) \u2013 a larger longitudinal study examining the physical, psychological, and social conditions for healthy ageing. In total, 341 adults aged 61 to 82 years took part in the present study.<\/p>\n

Apart from carrying out memory and reasoning tests, the structure of stress-processing brain regions, especially the amygdala, was assessed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In order to examine the influence of nature close to peoples\u2019 homes in these brain regions, the researchers combined the MRI data with geoinformation about the participants\u2019 places of residence.<\/p>\n

This information stemmed from the European Environment Agency\u2019s Urban Atlas, which provides an overview of urban land use in Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur study investigates the connection between urban planning features and brain health for the first time,\u201d says co-author Ulman Lindenberger, Director of the Center for Lifespan Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development.<\/p>\n

By 2050, almost 70 percent of the world population is expected to be living in cities. These results could, therefore, be very important for urban planning.<\/p>\n

In the near future, however, the observed association between the brain and closeness to forests would need to be confirmed in further studies and other cities, stated Ulman Lindenberger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BERLIN Nov 13 (TNS):\u00a0 City dwellers are at a higher risk of psychiatric illnesses such as depression, anxiety disorders, and schizophrenia than country dwellers, a study conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development found. Comparisons show higher activity levels in city dwellers\u2019 than in country dwellers\u2019 amygdala \u2014 a central nucleus in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[1149,733],"class_list":["post-30617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-berlin","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30617"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109855,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30617\/revisions\/109855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}