Identifying social, environmental, and genetic mechanisms linking the urban environment to the emergence of psychotic phenomena during adolescence

精神障碍(如精神分裂症)是导致残疾的全球主要原因之一，并给个人和更广泛的社会带来巨大的功能和经济负担。研究表明，在城市等城市环境中长大的成年人中，精神障碍的发生率是普通人的两倍。到2050年，预计将有70%的世界人口生活在城市，理解这种联系变得越来越重要。我的博士探索了城市环境在儿童和青少年亚临床精神病症状出现中的作用，例如极端偏执和听到其他人不能听到的声音。这些早期症状与成年后患精神障碍和其他严重心理健康问题(如焦虑和抑郁)的风险增加有关。因此，早期精神病症状是一个非常有用的干预目标，可能会让我们了解成人精神健康问题的早期风险因素。我的博士研究显示，在城市长大的儿童和青少年出现精神病症状的可能性是在城市长大的儿童和青少年的两倍，这在一定程度上是因为城市社区之间的信任和支持较少，犯罪和问题更多。在一个日益城市化的世界中，我们发现将城市环境与早期亚临床精神病症状的发病联系起来的其他途径是至关重要的。我的ESRC奖学金的目的是调查空气污染、附近的社会条件和遗传风险在城市教养和早期精神病症状之间的关联中所起的综合作用。空气污染是世界各地城市的一个主要问题，这些城市的空气污染水平经常超过国际健康指南。在ESRC博士后奖学金期间，我将准备我的博士学位的新发现作为一篇学术论文，它表明空气污染和邻里犯罪加在一起解释了城市化和青少年精神病症状之间84%的联系。精神病症状被认为是环境和遗传因素共同作用的结果。在ESRC奖学金期间，我将利用地理和遗传数据进行一项研究，以探索精神分裂症遗传风险的城乡分布。这将突显出精神分裂症遗传风险较高的年轻人是否更有可能生活在城市，这可能有助于更精确地针对干预措施。跨多个领域的研究对于揭示心理健康问题的复杂基础至关重要。为了支持我的研究员研究，并促进我向独立的精神健康研究人员的过渡，我将接受地理和遗传学学科的培训。在ESRC奖学金期间，我将学习如何创建详细的邻里环境测量方法，例如犯罪。我还将学习如何使用基因数据来创建精神分裂症的风险评分。此外，我将与领先的心理健康、流行病学和基因研究小组会面，为我未来的研究提案建立合作。在这项未来的研究中，我计划探索更广泛的因素，将城市环境与终生精神病联系起来，包括噪音污染。噪音污染(例如，道路交通)是城市的一个主要问题，并与压力和睡眠问题有关。然而，我们对噪音污染对心理健康的潜在影响知之甚少。在ESRC奖学金期间，我将申请进一步的资助，使用更大的数据集(例如ALSPAC和UK Biobank)来探索噪音和空气污染、邻里社会因素和遗传风险在终生精神病症状和障碍发生中的作用。ESRC奖学金研究的结果将发表在领先的精神健康杂志上，并在国际会议上公布。为了确保调查结果能接触到更广泛的受众，我将准备新闻稿、博客文章和播客，通过主要的城市政策和心理健康网站，如CityLab和Mind Elf分享。

Psychotic disorders (e.g., schizophrenia) are among the leading global causes of disability, and place a huge functional and economic burden on individuals and society more broadly. Studies have shown that psychotic disorders are twice as common among adults raised in urban settings such as cities. With 70% of the world's population predicted to live in cities by 2050, this association is increasingly important to understand.My PhD explored the role of the urban environment in the onset of subclinical psychotic symptoms among children and adolescents, such as extreme paranoia and hearing voices that others cannot. These early symptoms are associated with an increased adulthood risk for psychotic disorder and other severe mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. Early psychotic symptoms are therefore a very useful target for intervention, and may inform us about early risk factors for adult mental health problems. My PhD research showed that children and teenagers raised in cities were twice as likely to have psychotic symptoms, and this was partly explained by urban neighbourhoods having less trust and support between neighbours, and more crime and problems. In an increasingly urban world, it is crucial that we uncover other pathways linking the urban environment to the onset of early subclinical psychotic symptoms. The aim of my ESRC fellowship is to investigate the combined roles of air pollution, neighbourhood social conditions, and genetic risk in the association between urban upbringing and early psychotic symptoms. Air pollution is a major problem in cities around the world, where levels regularly exceed international health guidelines. During the ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, I will prepare novel findings from my PhD as an academic paper, which showed that air pollution and neighbourhood crime together explained 84% of the association between urbanicity and adolescent psychotic symptoms. Psychotic symptoms are thought to arise from a combination of environmental and genetic influences. During the ESRC fellowship, I will conduct a study using geographic and genetic data to explore the urban-rural distribution of genetic risk for schizophrenia. This will highlight whether young people at higher genetic risk for schizophrenia are more likely to live in cities, which could help to target interventions with greater precision. Research spanning multiple fields is vital to uncover the complex basis of mental health problems. To support my fellowship research and facilitate my transition to an independent mental health researcher, I will receive training from geographic and genetic disciplines. During the ESRC fellowship I will learn how to create detailed measures of neighbourhood environments such as crime. I will also learn how to use genetic data to create risk scores for schizophrenia. In addition, I will meet with leading mental health, epidemiology, and genetic research groups to build collaborations for my future research proposal. For this future research, I plan to explore a wider range of factors linking the urban environment to psychosis across the lifespan, including noise pollution. Noise pollution (e.g., road traffic) is a major problem in cities, and has been linked to stress and sleep problems. However, we know very little about the potential impact of noise pollution on mental health. During the ESRC fellowship, I will apply for further funding to use larger datasets (e.g., ALSPAC and UK Biobank) to explore the roles of noise and air pollution, neighbourhood social factors, and genetic risk in the onset of psychotic symptoms and disorders across the lifespan. Findings from the ESRC fellowship research will be published in leading mental health journals and presented at international conferences. To ensure findings reach a wider audience, I will prepare press releases, and blog articles and podcasts to share via key urban policy and mental health websites, such as CityLab and The Mental Elf.