The ethics of flourishing or failing: social, economic and environmental determinants of global mental health in an uncertain future

Although we are beginning to better understand how poverty and adversity impact on health, neuroethicists need a better understanding of the social, economic and environmental factors that will underlie population mental health in the future, and how best to bolster potential protective factors and mitigate possible future threats. Deep inequities across the world driven by developmental progress in some regions and within some countries, coupled with little or no progress in others, have created a host of economic, social and psychological factors that will drive human mental health in the future. Extreme inequality places some populations at increased risk, as others strive to ensure their own progress. This chapter will provide an overview of our current understanding of the social determinants of mental health, and provide a link to the future by way of an exploration of a selected group of social, economic and environmental risks that neuroethics needs to consider in the next two decades.