VIRTUAL London.
Abstract
Twenty-first century urbanization poses increasing challenges for mental health. Epidemiological studies have shown that mental health problems often accumulate in urban areas, compared to rural areas, and suggested possible underlying causes associated with the social and physical urban environments. Emerging work indicates complex urban effects that depend on many individual and contextual factors at the neighbourhood and country level and novel experimental work is starting to dissect potential underlying mechanisms. This review summarizes findings from epidemiology and population-based studies, neuroscience, experimental and experience-based research and illustrates how a combined approach can move the field towards an increased understanding of the urbanicity-mental health nexus. This paper has already been published, but so far I have only presented it at one conference. It would be great to present at AMPS at City.
Dr Anne-Kathrin Fett is a Reader in Biological and Clinical Psychology at City, University of London. She completed her PhD on the neurocognitive mechanisms of social functioning in non-affective psychosis at the VU Amsterdam and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London. She uses psychological, epidemiological and neuroscience approaches to study different aspects of social functioning, such as loneliness and social isolation, and their predictors in the general population and in individuals with psychotic and other mental health disorders.
Lydia Krabbendam
Mark van Vugt
Philippe Conus
Ola Söderström
Lilith Abrahamyan Empson
Jim van Os