The impacts of climate change on the mental health of people living in Bangladesh are alarming, found a new study.

The study, made public on Monday, was published in the journal Lancet Planetary Health, reports CNET.

The team of scientists led by Syed Shabab Wahid, an assistant professor in the department of global health at Georgetown University's School of Health, measured climate variables at 43 weather stations in Bangladesh to track parameters such as seasonal temperature, humidity and flooding occurrences over two months.

Then they surveyed 7,000 citizens in both urban and rural areas first in August and September 2019, and then again in January and February 2020, to assess how subjects' anxiety and depression changed amid weather fluctuations tied to global warming, CNET reports quoting the study.

People who experienced higher temperatures (by 1 degree Celsius) during the two months preceding the study had a 21 percent higher probability of having an anxiety disorder and a 24 percent higher probability of having depression, according to the results.

The team's paper also suggested that an increase in humidity (specifically, a 1 gram of moisture increase per cubic metre of air) created a 6 percent higher probability of having both anxiety and depression.

In terms of natural disasters, the study also found that climate change-induced flooding led to a 31-percent increase in probability of depression, 69 percent for anxiety and both together a staggering 87 percent.

"We have now established a high-water mark that alas could soon be eclipsed for how climate can impact mental health in a highly vulnerable country. This should serve as a warning for other nations," CNET reports quoting the lead author of the study as saying.

"As climate change worsens, temperatures and humidity will continue to increase, as will natural disasters, such as extreme flooding, which portends worsening impact on our collective mental health, globally," Wahid said.

"Our next steps are twofold. We want to develop and evaluate community-based interventions that are culturally appropriate for Bangladesh, such as offering mental health services to climate-affected communities, of which there are many throughout the country," Wahid added.

"We also plan to conduct further research in Bangladesh," he said. "And globally on the associations identified in this study using longer-term approaches to narrow down the causes and effects of climate changes on mental health."