The Interplay between Environmental Exposures and Mental Health Outcomes

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Mounting evidence shows that the environment can play an important role in mental health, yet comparatively few studies have focused on the mental or behavioral health outcomes of environmental stressors. The Interplay Between Environmental Exposures and Mental Health Outcomes, a virtual workshop held on February 2-3, 2021, provided mental health and environmental health research experts from government, academia, and the private sector with the opportunity to explore emerging research on the relationships between environmental exposures and mental health. Workshop presentations covered a broad array of the diverse makeup of environmental exposures, including those that are chemical, biological, or physical, and either natural or human-made in origin. Furthermore, while the historical definition of an environmental exposure refers to a contact that causes a negative health effect, some presenters highlighted how a person's environment can lead to positive mental health outcomes. Workshop participants also discussed approaches to better integrate mental and behavioral health into multidisciplinary considerations of environmental health; considered how mental and behavioral health impacts could become part of environmental risk assessments and public health choices; and highlighted new tools and technologies to assess ways in which the environment can affect mental health. This Proceedings of a Workshop-in Brief provides the rapporteurs' high-level summary of the topics addressed in the workshop and suggestions provided by workshop participants for ways of integrating mental and behavioral health research and environmental research.

Publication information

12 pages · 8.5 x 11 ·
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-68014-X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17226/26201

Suggested citation

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. The Interplay Between Environmental Exposures and Mental Health Outcomes: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

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Gina M. Solomon

Gina M. Solomon researches science and policy issues related to toxic chemicals and environmental health. Her current work focuses on drinking water contaminants in areas
affected by wildfires, and water quality in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities and those with high rates of breast cancer. She also works to protect public health from toxic
chemicals in consumer products and pesticides. Dr. Solomon leads the Achieving Resilient Communities (ARC) project, engaging and empowering California communities to strengthen
health despite a changing climate. Dr. Solomon is also a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). She served as the Deputy Secretary for Science and Health at the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) from 2012-2018, and as a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council from 1996-2012. She was the director of the occupational and environmental medicine residency program at UCSF, and the co-director of the UCSF Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit. She has served on multiple boards and committees of the National Academies, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and other federal and state agencies. Dr. Solomon received her bachelor’s degree from Brown University, her M.D. from Yale University, and did her M.P.H. and her residency and fellowship training in internal medicine and occupational and environmental medicine at Harvard University.

Margarita Alegria

Margarita Alegría is the Chief of the Disparities Research Unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and The Mongan Institute, the Harry G. Lehnert, Jr. and Lucille F. Cyr Lehnert Endowed MGH Research Institute Chair and a Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Alegría is currently the principal investigator of four National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research studies: The Impact of Medicaid Plans on Access to and Quality of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Treatment; Building Infrastructure for Community Capacity in Accelerating Integrated Care; Building Community Capacity for Disability Prevention for Minority Elders; and Latino Youth Coping with
Discrimination: A Multi-Level Investigation in Micro- and Macro-Time. Dr. Alegría has published 300 peer-reviewed papers, and several book chapters, on topics such as improvement of health care services delivery for diverse racial and ethnic populations, conceptual and methodological issues with multicultural populations and ways to bring the community’s perspective into the design and implementation of health services. In acknowledgement of her contributions to her field, Dr. Alegría has been widely recognized and cited. Her research has been recognized by the Simon Bolivar Award by the American Psychiatry Association, the Carl Taube Award by the American Public Health Association and the Health Disparities Innovation Award from the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities. In October 2011, she was elected as a member of the National Academy of Medicine. Most recently, Dr. Alegría received the Rema Lapouse Award for Achievement in Epidemiology, Mental Health and Applied Statistics by the American Public Health Association (2020). She was awarded a Ph.D. in Psychology from Temple University, a M.A. in Psychology from University of Puerto Rico, and a B.A. in Psychology from Georgetown University.

Laura Y. Cabrera

Laura Y. Cabrera is Assistant Professor of Neuroethics at the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences at Michigan State University. She is also Faculty Affiliate at Neuroethics Canada, University of British Columbia. She received a BSc in Electrical and Communication Engineering from the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) in Mexico City, an MA in Applied Ethics from Linköping University in Sweden, and a PhD in Applied Ethics from Charles Sturt University in Australia. Dr. Cabrera's interests focus on the ethical and societal implications of neurotechnologies used for treatment as well as for enhancement purposes. She has been working on projects at the interface of normative, conceptual and empirical approaches, exploring attitudes and ethical concerns of professionals, patients and members of the public toward brain interventions. Her work has also focused on the ethical and social implications of environmental changes for brain and mental health. Her current work focuses on the responsible use of psychiatric electroceutical interventions, and the timing of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s Disease. Dr. Cabrera is an honorific member of the Mexican Neuroethics Society, chair of the International Neuroethics Society (INS) Emergent Issues Task Force, member of the Board of Directors of the (INS), and member of the IEEE Brain Neuroethics Subcommittee.

Emily Freeman

Emily Freeman is a health geographer by training and has worked closely on the impact of environment and health as a contributing factor to psychological growth. She has studied the geography of everyday life in relation to: (a) social determinants of health and the built environment, (b) the importance of physical place in everyday life on health, (c) the relationships between everyday life and socio-structural constraints of the built environment (i.e., proximity to environmental hazards, impact of natural disasters), and (d) risk perceptions of the physical environment on well-being. Currently, Dr. Freeman is working on the integration of the lived experience of patients into drug development and the development of outcome measures that reflect the lived experience on behavioral health and mental health outcomes. She received her Ph.D. degree in Health Geography from McMaster University with postdoctoral training in Palliative Care and Psychosocial Oncology from the University of Toronto Faculty of Psychiatry.

Erika M. Manczak

Erika M. Manczak is an Assistant Professor at the University of Denver in the Department of Psychology, having completed her Ph.D. at Northwestern University, clinical internship at the University of Illinois-Chicago, and postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University. Her program of research seeks to identify novel biological and environmental contributors to the development of depressive symptoms in youth and their parents, with particular emphasis on transactions between the immune system and psychological processes. She has authored more than 30 articles, which have been published in leading psychology journals such as Psychological Science and Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In recent years, she has become particularly interested in the role of environmental pollution on youth mental health, with work identifying water contaminants, ambient ozone, and particulate matter (PM2.5) exposures as predictors of adolescent mental health symptoms. She is currently involved in several projects investigating these exposures across the lifespan including during the prenatal period, adolescence, and adulthood.

Gary Miller

Gary Miller is Professor of Environmental Health Sciences and Vice Dean for Research Strategy and Innovation at Columbia University. He completed his doctoral training in Pharmacology and Toxicology and postdoctoral training in Molecular Neuroscience. His research has focused on environmental factors involved in the development of neurodegenerative conditions, such as Parkinson's disease. His laboratory works at the interface of neuroscience and toxicology, using a wide variety of experimental techniques. Dr. Miller previously served as Director of the Emory HERCULES center, an NIEHS-funded center focused on the exposome, the environmental analogue to the genome. He also served as Director of Emory's NIEHS-funded T32 Training Grant in Environmental Health Sciences and Toxicology. Dr. Miller received the Acheivement Award from Society of Toxicology and previously was Editor-in-Chief of Toxicological Sciences, the official journal of Society of Toxicology.

Aaron Reuben

Aaron Reuben is a clinical psychology scientist-practitioner in-training and independent science writer. His research focuses on the link between environmental health and human psychology, cognitive health, and aging. Mr. Reuben writes about nature, neuroscience, and public health. It aims to fuse the fields of clinical neuropsychology, mental health and degenerative disease epidemiology, and environmental quality and natural resource conservation. He completed Masters in Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and a Bachelors in Neuroscience & Behavior and English Literature from Wesleyan University. Currently, he is a Doctoral degree student in Duke University's Department of Psychology & Neuroscience and a former study coordinator for Columbia University's Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain. Before joining Duke University, Mr. Reuben worked at the intersection of environmental stewardship and public health as an environmental policy researcher at the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy, an environmental policy intern at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and a science communicator and advocate at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. He has contributed new reporting to Mother Jones, VICE, Outside, Wired, Scientific American and the Atlantic, among others. Previously, he has also worked as a study coordinator, researcher, analyst, and communications officer for a variety of institutions, at universities, international NGOs, and governmental agencies.

Patrick H. Ryan

Patrick Ryan is Professor of Pediatrics and Environmental Health at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine. He obtained a B.S. in Mathematics from Xavier University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Epidemiology from the University of Cincinnati, Department of Environmental Health. In 2013, he joined the faculty of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and currently serves as the Associate Director for Research in the Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Co-Director of the Graduate Program in Clinical and Translational Research, and Director of the Translational Workforce Development Core for the Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training. Dr. Ryan’s research program focuses on the role of indoor and outdoor environmental toxicants on pediatric health, with specific focus on the impact of air pollutants on respiratory health, neurobehavioral development, and adolescent mental health. In addition, his research includes the use of personal air monitors and health sensors in epidemiologic studies and the impact of naturally occurring elongated mineral fibers on pulmonary disease in the western United States.

Workshop

The Interplay between Environmental Exposures and Mental Health Outcomes - A Workshop

February 2 - 3, 2021

Past

Materials

About

This workshop produced a summary available here.

There is growing evidence that the environment can play an important role in mental health—yet research into the effects of environmental stressors rarely focuses on behavioral and mental health outcomes. This virtual workshop brought together experts in mental health and environmental health research to explore emerging research on the relationship, harmful or beneficial, between environmental factors and mental health.

The workshop explored ways to better integrate mental and behavioral health into multidisciplinary considerations of environmental health, and considered how mental and behavioral health impacts could become part of environmental risk assessments and public health decisions.

Workshop presentations and discussions focused on topics such as:

New diagnostic tools and methodologies in neurobehavioral research frameworks to assess mental health effects;
Vulnerable populations, such as marginalized communities, adolescents, first-responders, and veterans; and
Identifying public health actions that could help reduce the mental health impacts of environmental stressors.

You can view the list of the workshop organizing committee members and their biographies here.

See the Meeting Materials section below for the workshop agenda, participant biographies, and a suggested background reading citations list.

Resources

Video Primers

We strongly encourage all workshop participants to watch the primers before attending the virtual workshop on February 2-3. The primers will provide pertinent background information to lay the foundation for the presentations and discussion panels which will take place during the workshop.

Primer 1: Mental Health for Environmental Health Professionals (23 minutes)
Erika Manczak, University of Denver
Primer 2: Environmental Health for Mental Health Professionals (16 minutes)
Melissa Perry, The George Washington University
Primer 3: The Role of Genetics in Mental and Behavioral Health Disorders (27 minutes)
Daniel Geschwind, University of California, Los Angeles

Contact

Use of Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions Staff

(202) 334-3365
eseh@nas.edu

Disclaimer

It is essential to the National Academies mission of providing evidence-based advice that participants in any of our meetings or events avoid political or partisan statements or commentary and maintain a culture of mutual respect. The statements and presentations during our meetings or events are solely those of the individual participants and do not necessarily represent the views of other participants or the National Academy of Sciences, which is a non-partisan, tax exempt organization that includes under its Charter the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine, and that operates the National Research Council.

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The Interplay between Environmental Exposures and Mental Health Outcomes - A Workshop

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