"Living in an urban environment is long known to be a risk factor for psychiatric diseases such as major depression or schizophrenia. This is true even though infrastructure, socioeconomic conditions, nutrition and health care services are clearly better in cities than in rural areas. Higher stress exposure and higher stress vulnerability seem to play a crucial role. Social stress may be the most important factor for the increased risk of mental disorders in urban areas. It may be experienced as social evaluative threat, or as chronic social stress, both of which are likely to occur as a direct consequence of high population densities in cities."
"As urbanisation of our world is inevitable, we urgently need to improve our understanding of the threatening – as well as the health protective – factors of urban living. Evidence is beginning to surface that indicates that the urban population shows a stronger brain response to stress, and stronger cognitive impairment under stress. A recent fMRI study in the journal Nature, conducted by a German research group, showed that these effects seem to occur irrespective of age, gender, general health status, marital or income status."
"Further, activity in another brain region associated with depression, the perigenual anteriour cingular cortex, was positively correlated with the time that an individual had spent in a large city as a child. The more years someone had spent growing up under urban conditions, the more active this brain region tended to be."
"The World Health Organization has highlighted stress as one of the major health challenges of the twenty-first century. Urban living is quickly developing as a major contributor to this."
https://lsecities.net/media/objects/articles/urban-stress-and-mental-health/en-gb/
"In countries with a high standard of living, city residents are as much as 21 percent more likely to develop chronic anxiety than rural dwellers. And even if urbanites hightail it to the nearest patch of green, there’s a chance the stress could follow. There’s evidence that in some residents, city living may even alter the brain to process stress less effectively!
"In countries with a high standard of living, city residents are as much as 21 percent more likely to develop chronic anxiety than rural dwellers. And even if urbanites hightail it to the nearest patch of green, there’s a chance the stress could follow. There’s evidence that in some residents, city living may even alter the brain to process stress less effectively!
"While cities could mean more stress, rural life isn’t always a breeze. Country living brings its own unique stressors — farmers, for example, are especially prone to psychological distress due to drought or other natural events. And even when rural residents face tough times, they could be less likely than city dwellers to seek mental help. Swamped city-dwellers might actually have an easier time opening up and sending out the S.O.S. (Stop Our Stress!)"
"Luckily, it’s possible to fight stress before it takes its full toll, no matter where we live. Try these tips for a less-stressed urban life. (They work outside the city, too!)
http://greatist.com/happiness/how-beat-city-stress
"Previous studies have shown that city living during childhood is associated with a two- to three-fold greater chance of getting schizophrenia, and even after reaching adulthood, living in a city increases the risk for anxiety disorders by 21 percent and mood disorders by 39 percent compared with non-urban dwellers."
- Say om. Studies suggest learning how to meditate can help reduce city dwellers’ stress levels . So even when a speeding taxi almost mows you down, you can focus on breathing and staying zen.
- Go green. If the nearest patch of grass is covered in canine excrement, it might help to bring nature indoors. Research suggests workers who have potted plants on their desk are more productive and get sick less often.
- Walk (or bike) it out. Beyond pollution and blaring sirens, the commute alone can be a huge source of stress in cities . If possible, skip the subway or bus and walk or bike to work instead. You’ll not only get the benefits of exercise, but you’ll help save the planet, too."
http://greatist.com/happiness/how-beat-city-stress
"Previous studies have shown that city living during childhood is associated with a two- to three-fold greater chance of getting schizophrenia, and even after reaching adulthood, living in a city increases the risk for anxiety disorders by 21 percent and mood disorders by 39 percent compared with non-urban dwellers."
"The amygdala and the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex together form a stress-response pathway in the brain, with the PACC regulating the amygdala, which then helps you process threats and temper your emotional reactions."
"The researchers are looking next to see what parts of city living might influence this difference in brain activity, including factors like amount of green space available, type of neighborhood and culture of the region. These insights could help city planners build better, less anxiety-producing cities."
http://www.livescience.com/14721-city-living-stresses-brain.html
"You are lying down with your head in a noisy and tightfitting fMRI brain scanner, which is unnerving in itself. You agreed to take part in this experiment, and at first the psychologists in charge seemed nice.
They set you some rather confusing maths problems to solve against the clock, and you are doing your best, but they aren't happy. 'Can you please concentrate a little better?' they keep saying into your headphones. Or, 'You are among the worst performing individuals to have been studied in this laboratory.' Helpful things like that. It is a relief when time runs out.
Few people would enjoy this experience, and indeed the volunteers who underwent it were monitored to make sure they had a stressful time. Their minor suffering, however, provided data for what became a major study, and a global news story. The researchers, led by Dr Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg of the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany, were trying to find out more about how the brains of different people handle stress. They discovered that city dwellers' brains, compared with people who live in the countryside, seem not to handle it so well.
To be specific, while Meyer-Lindenberg and his accomplices were stressing out their subjects, they were looking at two brain regions: the amygdalas and the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (pACC). The amygdalas are known to be involved in assessing threats and generating fear, while the pACC in turn helps to regulate the amygdalas. In stressed citydwellers, the amygdalas appeared more active on the scanner; in people who lived in small towns, less so; in people who lived in the countryside, least of all."
"Researchers in the US and elsewhere have also found that exposure to nature seems to offer a variety of beneficial effects to city dwellers, from improving mood and memory, to alleviating ADHD in children. Much of this research considers the question of 'cognitive load', the wearying of a person's brain by too much stimulation, which is thought to weaken some functions such as self-control, and perhaps even contribute to higher rates of violence. In terms of its impact on public health, Adli believes that urbanisation may even be comparable to climate change."
"As Adli himself is keen to emphasise, stress is only part of the impact that cities have on our brains. 'There's a lot of what we call urban advantage,' he says, 'When we live in cities there is a much richer environment. There is also better healthcare, better education, a better standard of living. All these are protective factors.'"
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/feb/25/city-stress-mental-health-rural-kind
"The current and former urban dwellers had different brain activity under stress from their non-urban counterparts. And the differences were centered on the amygdala and another brain area closely associated with the amygdala, the little section of specialized brain cells just above the brain stem where other research has found fear begins. The amygdala is your 24/7 'could there be danger out there?' radar. If it senses any kind of a threat, it sets off the hormonal, neurological, and metabolic processes that we think of as the Fight or Flight response, and which biologists call Stress. The urban brains in the recent research went off more readily, and more strongly, when stressed. Their sensitivity to stressors had been permanently set at a higher more hair-trigger level. And the bigger the city the person lived in, the stronger the heightened stress sensitivity."
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/feb/25/city-stress-mental-health-rural-kind
"The current and former urban dwellers had different brain activity under stress from their non-urban counterparts. And the differences were centered on the amygdala and another brain area closely associated with the amygdala, the little section of specialized brain cells just above the brain stem where other research has found fear begins. The amygdala is your 24/7 'could there be danger out there?' radar. If it senses any kind of a threat, it sets off the hormonal, neurological, and metabolic processes that we think of as the Fight or Flight response, and which biologists call Stress. The urban brains in the recent research went off more readily, and more strongly, when stressed. Their sensitivity to stressors had been permanently set at a higher more hair-trigger level. And the bigger the city the person lived in, the stronger the heightened stress sensitivity."
"Chronic stress:
- Raises your blood pressure, and your risk of heart disease and stroke
- Depresses your immune system. (The more worried you are about getting sick, the more likely it is that you will.
- Suppresses memory, fertility, and growth (it can even permanently shrink the hippocampus, the part of the brain critical to the formation and recall of long term memory)
- Is associated with higher likelihood of clinical depression, and Type 2 (adult onset) diabetes."
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