Heat can wreak havoc on our physical and mental health. Here’s what a CT doctor is doing about it

Hartford Courant – Sunday, September 7, 2025
By Helen I. Bennett

We all feel the impact of really hot days.

And as experts say the earth is warming due to climate change, some days are much hotter than others, bringing health impacts that can include dizziness, nausea, dehydration, and even heat stroke.

Now, a Connecticut doctor has decided to study the impact heat has on mental health.

Dr. Josh Wortzel, a clinician-scientist at Hartford HealthCare’s Institute of Living, will conduct two five-year studies into why heat impacts mental health.

Wortzel said he received a $3.5 grant from the Wellcome Trust for the work, which will include establishment of a laboratory, dubbed the HEAT-MIND Lab, with infrastructure in place to conduct research with a team of people.

Wortzel said, in an interview, that there has been research that demonstrates how heat can negatively impact people’s mental health, and this includes increases in suicide, violence and hospitalizations.

According to research from 2021, The Lancet reported, rising temperatures “can increase the number of violent crimes, including homicides, sexual offenses and assaults. In seven U.S. cities, each time the temperature rose 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit), there were up to 5% more sex offenses the following week.”

Further, “some psychiatric medications, including some antidepressants and antipsychotics, can affect the way a person’s body regulates temperature,” according to the American Psychiatric Association.

Wortzel’s goal is to find out why mental health impacts occur, he said. Heat may affect mood directly through how the brain works and in other ways, such as sleep, ability to do things and cognition, he said

“The grant is about understanding mechanisms of why heat seems to impact mental health,” he said, noting it is one of the largest of its kind.

When researchers determine the “why,” Wortzel said, interventions can be developed to aid those facing the mental health impact of heat.

The study is titled, “Mechanisms Mediating Summer Heat Effects on Mental Health: Examining Sleep, Physical Activity, and Cognitive Pathways in Young Adults with Affective Disorders.”

The work of the first study, which will encompass 1,000 young adults (ages 18 to 25) who have depression, will include issuing to them various devices to check their temperatures, sleep and activity level, he said. The devices include thermometers and Fitbits, he said.

The participants also will be asked questions to gauge their mood and their cognitive functioning, he said.

“We are gathering data unlike anyone has done before,” Wortzel said. “We give them devices to gather rich individual data, thermometers they wear and put at bedside and Fitbits, an app, surveys throughout the day … it’s a huge data set from 1,000 people.”

“We are very committed to the idea of using lived experience,” Wortzel said. “What temperature people are actually experiencing personally.”

The second study will include 50 young adults who will undergo monitoring at the Yale Bio-Behavioral Sleep Lab, and it will include periods of very hot temperatures, with the goal of studying how heat directly impacts how brains work, he said.

Wortzel said the team would actually raise the temperature in the lab and use EEG and ingested temperature probes among other things to obtain more data on how heat affects the participants.

It will be a “deeper dive” and include heat sensors and cognitive tests, looking at sleep, he said.

“Is it really messing up sleep, is that when air conditioning is really important? Are there other things we can do?” he said, of things researchers will look at.

Wortzel said the studies use the services of a recruitment company for clinical studies to find appropriate participants. The company will work with social media influencers, as well as advertisement and social media, he said. All participants will interviewed, he said.

Wortzel said he recognizes that “climate change is the crisis of our age” and how the study of heat and mental health fits in.

According to a study shared by the National Library of Medicine and authored by Moustaq Karim Khan Ronyand Hasnat M Alamgir. “In an era defined by rapid and visible climate change, the intricate relationship between environmental shifts and human health has come under intense scrutiny.”

Wortzel said he has always been very interested in biology, and “for me to try to do my part addresses all sectors of climate crisis … all of the ways climate impacts mental health.”

Jeffrey A. Flaks, president and CEO of Hartford HealthCare, said he sees the work the lab will do as “truly groundbreaking research — and it’s happening right here in Connecticut.”

“We are incredibly proud to support Dr. Wortzel and the Institute of Living in leading this bold and visionary effort to to advance mental health care,” Flaks said. “This work has the potential to transform health care as we know it, reshaping clinical care for our most vulnerable populations.”

Wortzel said one of his goals also is to reduce stigma around mental health. He said participation in the studies lasts about 30 days.

The Wellcome Trust, which has thousands of active grants in more than 100 countries, notes it focuses on “worldwide health challenges: mental health, infectious disease and climate and health,” including through research.

“It wouldn’t happen without them,” Wortzel said.

“There really isn’t a place studying how environment impacts mental health. We hope that we can get buy-in from other donors,” he said.

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