Hot brain: practical climate change advice for neurologists
Open accessAbstract
‘We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims’—Buckminster Fuller People with chronic neurological conditions may be vulnerable to change and less able to manage its demands: neurological diseases are among the most burdensome. Whether climate change has particular effects on specific neurological diseases or not, the known impaired resilience to change affecting people with neurological diseases requires neurologists to have awareness of potential climate impacts and their management. Preparedness should include understanding of general national and local alerts and action systems, and the ability to advise patients about managing extreme weather events, particularly heatwaves, but also floods and cold snaps. At the same time, we need more research into the particular consequences of climate change on specific neurological diseases. Climate change is a serious healthcare issue, requiring the neurological community to respond as it would, or did, to other serious challenges, such as COVID-19. As disease experts, we all have a role to play.
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Because of degenerate systems and the lack of stationarity in our world, it is most difficult to achieve standards of reliability in exactly those circumstances in which it is most critical for public policy or decision-making.
“Unfortunately, because of degenerate systems and the lack of stationarity in our world, it is most difficult to achieve standards of reliability in exactly those circumstances in which it is most critical for public policy or decision-making [72,73].”
From A feature and not a bug: Replication failures can lead to new biology (2026) · cites this paper as [72]
The Practical actions section says existing data can conflict and that older studies may reflect climate conditions already surpassed. But neither that passage nor the additional searches for degenerate systems, stationarity, reliability, and decision-making addresses the claimed difficulty of meeting reliability standards when policy decisions are most critical. (LLM, conf=0.74)
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“38 Some have described the process as part of an individual climate journey.”
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Climate change and disorders of the nervous system
Sisodiya, S. M., Gulcebi, M. I., Fortunato, F., Mills, J. D., Haynes, E., Bramon, E., Chadwick, P., Ciccarelli, O., David, A. S., De Meyer, K., et al. (2024) · The Lancet Neurology · doi:10.1016/s1474-4422(24)00087-5 · Cited by 105 · see citing works
Self-citationA feature and not a bug: Replication failures can lead to new biology
Marder, E. (2026) · Current Opinion in Neurobiology · doi:10.1016/j.conb.2026.103268
- Authors
- Sisodiya, S. M.
- Affiliations
- UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Sisodiya, Sanjay M
- ORCID
- Sisodiya, Sanjay M
- Venue
- Practical Neurology
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2023-11-10
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 28-36
- ISSN
- 1474-7758 (ISSN-L)
- 1474-7766
- OpenAlex
- W4388575902
- Cited by
- 17
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 4
- FWCI
- 1.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Practical Neurology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Epilepsy Society
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Climate Change and Health Impacts
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Emergency Medical Services › Disaster Response and Management
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Thermoregulation and physiological responses
- Keywords
- climate change, neurological disorders, heat waves, extreme weather events, patient readiness, public health alerts, floods, cold waves, neurologist role
- MeSH terms
- Neurologists, Brain, Humans, Weather, Floods, Climate Change
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