Longitudinal study of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders' impact on deaths of despair in the United States, January 2019 to December 2020.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic led to increase in mental health problems and substance misuse. Yet, little is known about its impact on rates of deaths of despair (death by suicide and drug overdose). Our objective was to determine the impact of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders on deaths of despair using population-level data. We hypothesized that the longer duration of stay-at-home orders would increase rates of deaths of despair. METHODS: Utilizing quarterly suicide and drug-overdose mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics from January 2019 through December 2020, we estimated fixed-effects models to examine the effects of the duration of stay-at-home orders as differentially implemented in 51 jurisdictions in the United States on each outcome. RESULTS: Controlling for seasonal patterns, the duration of jurisdictional-level stay-at-home order was positively associated with drug-overdose death rates. The duration of stay-at-home orders was not associated with suicide rates when adjusting for calendar quarter. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest an increase in age-adjusted drug-overdose death rates in the United States from 2019 to 2020 possibly attributable to the duration of jurisdictional COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. This effect may have operated through various mechanisms, including increases in economic distress and reduced access to treatment programs when stay-at-home orders were in effect.

The Uncanny Valley Phenomenon and the Temporal Dynamics of Face Animacy Perception.

Human replicas highly resembling people tend to elicit eerie sensations-a phenomenon known as the uncanny valley. To test whether this effect is attributable to people's ascription of mind to (i.e., mind perception hypothesis) or subtraction of mind from androids (i.e., dehumanization hypothesis), in Study 1, we examined the effect of face exposure time on the perceived animacy of human, android, and mechanical-looking robot faces. In Study 2, in addition to exposure time, we also manipulated the spatial frequency of faces, by preserving either their fine (high spatial frequency) or coarse (low spatial frequency) information, to examine its effect on faces' perceived animacy and uncanniness. We found that perceived animacy decreased as a function of exposure time only in android but not in human or mechanical-looking robot faces (Study 1). In addition, the manipulation of spatial frequency eliminated the decrease in android faces' perceived animacy and reduced their perceived uncanniness (Study 2). These findings link perceived uncanniness in androids to the temporal dynamics of face animacy perception. We discuss these findings in relation to the dehumanization hypothesis and alternative hypotheses of the uncanny valley phenomenon.

Women's experiences of economic coercion and depressive symptoms in Matlab, Bangladesh.

Prior studies of the association between intimate partner violence (IPV) and depressive symptoms have typically excluded economic coercion (EC), a prevalent form of IPV worldwide. Here, we used structural equation models (SEM) to estimate the association of EC with depressive symptoms, with and without adjustment for physical/psychological/sexual IPV, among women in rural Matlab, Bangladesh. Data were collected from cross-sectional surveys with married women 15-49 years, conducted between November 2018 and January 2019. Prior-week depressive symptoms were measured using the 10-item Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression short-form. Lifetime EC was assessed using a bi-dimensional, 36-item scale developed in Matlab. Lifetime physical/sexual/psychological IPV was assessed using the 20-item WHO Domestic Violence module. Covariates were age, age at marriage, and schooling; partner's schooling; and household wealth. Among 929 women, lifetime experience of EC ranged from 41.9% (control over access to work, schooling, and training) to 50.0% (control over use/maintenance of economic resources), while any lifetime physical/psychological/sexual IPV was 89.5%. Coercion involving the use and maintenance of economic resources had a significant, adjusted association with depressive symptoms (standardized coefficient = 0.491, p<0.001, R2=0.221). The standardized association of any physical/psychological/sexual IPV with depressive symptoms, adjusted for covariates and cluster sampling, was 0.346 (p <0.001, R2=0.143). When further adjusted for the two measures of EC, the association was attenuated and non-significant (0.049, p = 0.817). These findings suggest that EC is prevalent, significantly associated with depressive symptoms, and attenuates the association of other forms of IPV with depressive symptoms. Addressing EC with other forms of IPV may be necessary to reduce depressive symptoms in exposed women.