Associated organisationsNational Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences · University of NottinghamEurope PMC affiliations are not treated as award recipients or mapped locations.
Funding£2.6M
PeriodFeb 2026 — Jan 2031
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
Heatwaves are sending more people with psychosis to hospital, and researchers want to know if the gut is the missing link. This matters because while we know that high temperatures worsen psychosis symptoms and increase deaths, the biological mechanism is a black box. The gut microbiome is sensitive to heat, and it talks to the brain via nerves, immune signals, and metabolites. People with psychosis already have distinct gut bacteria, so heat may push that system into crisis. The project will track gut microbes, blood and stool metabolites, inflammatory markers, and brain chemistry in patients experiencing new or relapsed psychosis under different heat conditions. It will also ask patients how heat affects them and what interventions they would accept. If the research succeeds, it could reveal a concrete, measurable pathway—heat → gut shift → brain change → relapse—that opens the door to simple, low-cost interventions. These might include dietary adjustments, probiotics, or cooling strategies tailored to the microbiome. The work is not yet testing treatments, but it will build the predictive models and patient-reported data needed to design them. It is fundamental science with a clear clinical target: understanding how an environmental stressor hijacks a biological system to trigger severe mental illness.
View original technical description
Higher ambient temperatures (HAT) and heatwaves have a detrimental impact on the morbidity and mortality associated with mental illnesses, particularly psychoses. Individuals with psychoses are more likely to be admitted to hospital and die during HAT and heatwaves. However, little is known about the mechanisms through which heat precipitates or exacerbates psychoses. High temperatures affect gut microbiota composition. Gut microbiota influence brain functioning through neural and biochemical mechanisms. Differences in gut microbiota may have a causal role in psychoses. Our goal is to understand how heat-related changes in gut microbiota precipitate or exacerbate psychoses. We will measure gut microbiota composition, microbial metabolites, inflammatory markers in stool and blood, and neurometabolite concentrations using magnetic resonance spectroscopy, in people with new-onset or relapse of psychoses under varying degrees of heat-stress. We will combine meteorological data, microclimate measurements, dietary habits, clinical profiles, gut microbiome, stool and blood metabolites, and neurometabolite data to build predictive models of heat-stress related gut-microbiota-brain-axis changes in psychoses. Simultaneously, we will explore the experiences and perceptions of individuals with psychoses on the impact of heat on their mental health, behavioural adaptations, and potential interventions. Our work will provide the basis for potential interventions and feasibility of their uptake.
Climate & Mental Health: Uncovering mechanisms between heat & mental health
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