ArticlePLoS biology2019
Air pollution as cause of mental disease: Appraisal of the evidence.
Article in PLoS biology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- The relationship between air pollution and police officers' mental health: an empirical analysis based on spatial econometric models.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Relationship between Environmental Conditions and Utilisation of Community-Based Mental Health Care: A Comparative Study before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Urbanicity and psychotic disorders: Facts and hypotheses.Dialogues in clinical neuroscience · 2023Review
- Ambient air pollution exposure and increasing depressive symptoms in older women: The mediating role of the prefrontal cortex and insula.The Science of the total environment · 2022Article
- Association between urban environment and mental health in Brussels, Belgium.BMC public health · 2021Article
- [Mental health and environmental health. A prospective view. SESPAS Report 2020].Gaceta sanitaria · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A causal association of air pollution with mental diseases is an intriguing possibility raised in a Short Report just published in PLOS Biology. Despite analyses involving large data sets, the available evidence has substantial shortcomings, and a long series of potential biases may invalidate the observed associations. Only bipolar disorder shows consistent results, with similar effects across United States and Denmark data sets, but the effect has modest magnitude, appropriate temporality is not fully secured, and biological gradient, plausibility, coherence, and analogy offer weak support. The signal seems to persist in some robustness analyses, but more analyses by multiple investigators, including contrarians, are necessary. Broader public sharing of data sets would also enhance transparency.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.