Salud mental y salud ambiental. Una visión prospectiva. Informe SESPAS 2020

Since the dawn of psychiatry, the environment has been an essential factor in the study and understanding of mental illness. Traditionally, the interrelationship between genome and environment has been a central theme in research on the etiopathogenesis of mental health problems and in the very conception of mental health. In its application to psychopathology and mental health, psychiatric enviromics was defined as «the study of environmental conditions and processes that promote mental health or increase the risk of developing mental disorders». However, environmental health —at least in Spain and in connection with its powers within the Spanish General Health System— has paid attention to aspects pertaining to risks associated with the physical, chemical and biological pollution of the air, the water and the ground, as well as to its correlation with food pollution. Although environmental risks such as air quality, extreme temperatures, noise, climate change and various environmental toxicants can play a particularly important role, they can hardly be identified as single etiopathogenic elements. This work reviews the recent literature on environmental research and problems of psychiatric morbidity and mortality. Although the results are inconclusive, future lines of research should consider a more agile interdisciplinary collaboration, allowing, on the one hand, a better understanding of mental illness and, on the other hand, to be able to shift from “traditional” environmental health to an environmental health that takes social environmental factors into account and seriously addresses the still little studied concept of “social pollution”.