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Air Pollution and Symptoms of Depression in Elderly Adults (6 page pdf, Youn-Hee Lim, Ho Kim, Jin Hee Kim, Sanghyuk Bae, Hye Yin Park, Yun-Chul Hong, Environ Health Perspect, April 18, 2012)
Also discussed here: Air Pollution and Emergency Department Visits for Suicide Attempts in Vancouver, Canada (8 page pdf, Mieczysław Szyszkowicz, Jeff B. Willey, Eric Grafstein, Brian H. Rowe, and Ian Colman, Environmental Health Insights, Oct. 15, 2010)
The causes for depression leading to suicide have been studied for some time. In today’s review article, the focus is on the older population and an investigation of the links with air pollution. Results indicate a significant association for depression with NO2, O3 and PM 10 and highlights what could become a major health issue in the graying society, especially in urban areas where these three pollutants tend to be worse.
Key Quotes:
“Depression is one of the common mental health problems experienced by the elderly and has been found to lead to increased mortality and suicide in this age group”
“In Canada, researchers reported short-term effects of air pollution on emergency department visits because of depression and suicide attempts”
“this is the first study to investigate associations between specific depressive symptoms among the elderly and air pollution after controlling for individual and temporal effects”
“Our study found that increasing concentrations of PM10, NO2, and O3 were significantly associated with depressive symptoms measured repeatedly among an elderly population in Korea”
“Because airborne particles, nitrogen oxides, and ozone are potent oxidants, air pollution may affect depressive moods by inducing oxidative stress”
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