Stress and the City

Life in the city is stressful – hustle and bustle in the streets and in public transport. Anonymity in everyday life, social stress, density and noise have adverse effects on the health of the urban population. By 2050, up to 70 percent of the world’s population will be living in cities.
Psychiatrist and stress researcher Mazda Adli studies how our brain reacts to the permanent stimuli of the city and whether living in cities can make us ill. He advocates neurourbanism, an interdisciplinary approach for academia, culture and politics to develop new visions for cities. Mazda Adli says: “Cities are good for us, we just have to learn how to make them livable places.”

Mada Adli’s research is focused on the study of factors that play a role in individual stress response as well as the development of strategies for the treatment of therapy-resistant depression. Together with the Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft, he founded the Interdisciplinary Forum Neurourbanism, a research platform that brings together neurosciences and urban research to better understand the effects of urban living on emotions, behaviour and mental health.

His book “Stress and the City. Why cities make us ill. And why they are still good for us” was published in 2017.