Exposome and mental health across the lifespan: research and clinical perspectives

Mental health is shaped by the complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors, each contributing to individual differences in risk and resilience. While genetic influences are increasingly well-characterized, understanding the role of environment is critical for several reasons. First, environmental exposures are potentially modifiable, and if proven causal, they offer actionable targets for interventions aimed at preventing or mitigating mental illness. Second, quantifying the environment in aggregate within biomedical research has long been challenging, largely because it requires accounting for multiple environmental components at once. As a result, previous studies have often struggled to fully assess environmental exposures and to connect overall environmental burden to health outcomes. Although this remains a complex challenge, recent advances in measurement and analytic methods provide new opportunities to more thoroughly quantify the environment and evaluate its impact on health and disease. Finally, environment is key to understanding mental health disparities, which is crucial for promoting health equity and guiding public health strategies. Focusing on environmental factors can therefore advance mental health understanding and promote more equitable prevention and care across the lifespan.