Substance use and abuse, COVID-19-related distress, and disregard for social distancing: A network analysis

Taylor, Steven; Paluszek, Michelle M.; Rachor, Geoffrey S.; McKay, Dean; Asmundson, Gordon J.G.

doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2020.106754

Cited by 157 publications

(152 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…When the change in the rates of diagnoses regarding the total number of PED visits were compared between 2020 and 2019; the increase in the rate of ASUDs was remarkable in 2020. Alcohol and substances are being used during the pandemic as a way to cope with psychological distress concerning COVID-19 [ 24 ]. Recent studies reported that COVID-19 pandemic has had considerable impact that increased alcohol and substance use and related emergencies, and alcohol and drug users have difficulties in treatment access and adherence which can aggravate the ASUDs [ 25 – 28 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychiatric emergency visit trends and characteristics in a mental health epicenter in Istanbul during COVID-19 lockdown

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Bilici

et al. 2021

Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol

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Background We aimed to explore the impact of the preventive measures and partial lockdown to the psychiatric emergency department (PED) visits during COVID-19 pandemic in a mental health epicenter in Istanbul. Methods A total of 5839 patients admitted to PED during the lockdown period (LP) between March 30 and May 31, 2020, were enrolled in this retrospective cohort study. Data of these patients were compared to those of patients in the same period in 2019 between April 1 and June 2, 2019 (non-LP). We also investigated the monthly number of PED visits and hospitalizations between March 1 and December 31, 2020, and compared it to the same period in 2019. Results The volume of PED visits and hospitalizations in LP decreased by 12% and 41.6%, respectively. The rates of patients presenting anxiety and depressive disorders and bipolar disorders were found to significantly increase in LP than non-LP ( p < 0.001; p < 0.001; p < 0.01, respectively). Depressive disorders, prior history of mental illness, and aggressive behavior were found to predict frequent PED visits while decrease in age and male gender found to predict hospitalizations. Regarding suicide attempt, younger patients and those with new-onset mental disorders were found to be at high risk in LP. Patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in PED visits were mostly with psychotic and bipolar disorders. Conclusion Policy-makers should focus on studies on mental health services to reorganize and enhance such services, which are crucial to prevent and manage adverse mental health consequences of the pandemic and congestion in PEDs.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychiatric emergency visit trends and characteristics in a mental health epicenter in Istanbul during COVID-19 lockdown

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Bilici

et al. 2021

Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol

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“…By turning towards WH, sites demonstrated the enormous potential of this approach to promote wellbeing and address stress among patients and employees during unprecedented times. The need for an approach such as this may be even more pertinent now given that recent studies have shown a marked increase in substance use among the US adults during the pandemic, 36 , 37 including among health care workers. 38 As calls urgently grow for healthcare systems to address employee burnout, the VHA’s WH model provides a system-wide example of how healthcare organizations can attend to employee wellbeing while simultaneously transforming the delivery system.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leaning Into Whole Health: Sustaining System Transformation While Supporting Patients and Employees During COVID-19

Dryden

Bolton

Bokhour

et al. 2021

Glob Adv Health Med

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Background The US Veterans Health Administration (VA) is transforming its healthcare system to create a Whole Health System (WHS) of care. Akin to such reorganization efforts as creating patient-centered medical homes and primary care behavioral health integration, the WHS goes beyond by transforming the entire system to one that takes a proactive approach to support patient and employee health and wellness. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic disrupted the VA’s healthcare system and added stress for staff and patients, creating an exogenous shock for this transformation towards a WHS. Objective We examined the relationship between VA’s WHS transformation and the pandemic to understand if transformation was sustained during crisis and contributed to VA’s response. Methods Qualitative interviews were conducted as part of a multi-year study of WHS transformation. A single multi-person interview was conducted with 61 WHS leaders at 18 VA Medical Centers, examining WH transformation and use during the pandemic. Data were analyzed using rapid directed content analysis. Results While the pandemic initially slowed transformation efforts, sites intentionally embraced a WH approach to support patients and employees during this crisis. Efforts included conducting patient wellness calls, and, for patients and employees, promoting complementary and integrative health therapies, self-care, and WH concepts to combat stress and support wellbeing. A surge in virtual technology use facilitated innovative delivery of complementary and integrative therapies and promoted continued use of WH activities. Conclusion The pandemic called attention to the need for healthcare systems to address the wellbeing of both patients and providers to sustain high quality care delivery. At a time of crisis, VA sites sustained WH transformation efforts, recognizing WH as one strategy to support patients and employees. This response indicates cultural transformation is taking hold, with WH serving as a promising approach for promoting wellbeing among patients and employees alike.

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“…Research on personal factors related to non-compliance with the pandemic safety best practices are still in the initial phases, but it is already possible to see an emerging pattern. The COVID-19 health rule-breakers, i.e., those contributing to non-compliance with the epidemiological safety guidance during the new coronavirus pandemic, tend to be males (Coroiu et al, 2020;Galasso et al, 2020;Nivette et al, 2020;Pollak et al, 2020;Sobol et al, 2020;Tomczyk et al, 2020), exhibit higher proneness to paranoia (Kowalski et al, 2020), and conspiracy beliefs (Biddlestone et al, 2020;Kowalski et al, 2020;Romer and Jamieson, 2020), show higher risk-taking (Miguel et al, 2020;Pollak et al, 2020;Zirenko et al, 2020), tend to not fear the virus, have low perceived risk of COVID-19 (Harper et al, 2020;Pollak et al, 2020), exhibit low self-control (Boylan et al, 2020;Nivette et al, 2020), use more alcohol and drugs (Taylor et al, 2020), tend to be smokers (Pollak et al, 2020), tend to be extraverted (Götz et al, 2020), tend to perceive more mating opportunities (e.g., potential sexual or romantic partners) (Zajenkowski et al, 2020), not have children (Pollak et al, 2020), have faster life history strategies (Corpuz et al, 2020), lower agreeableness (Asselmann et al, 2020;Zajenkowski et al, 2020), lower empathy (Miguel et al, 2020;Zirenko et al, 2020), higher levels of callousness and deceitfulness (Miguel et al, 2020), antisocial potential and moral disengagement from prevention rules (Nivette et al, 2020), higher psychological entitlement (i.e., high expectations for good outcomes, a lack of concern about others, and a distrust of authority figures) (Zitek and Schlund, 2020), and higher Dark Triad personali...…”

Section: Eveningness Epidemiological Liability Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 Pandemic on Fire: Evolved Propensities for Nocturnal Activities as a Liability Against Epidemiological Control

et al. 2021

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Humans have been using fire for hundreds of millennia, creating an ancestral expansion toward the nocturnal niche. The new adaptive challenges faced at night were recurrent enough to amplify existing psychological variation in our species. Night-time is dangerous and mysterious, so it selects for individuals with higher tendencies for paranoia, risk-taking, and sociability (because of security in numbers). During night-time, individuals are generally tired and show decreased self-control and increased impulsive behaviors. The lower visibility during night-time favors the partial concealment of identity and opens more opportunities for disinhibition of self-interested behaviors. Indeed, individuals with an evening-oriented chronotype are more paranoid, risk-taking, extraverted, impulsive, promiscuous, and have higher antisocial personality traits. However, under some circumstances, such as respiratory pandemics, the psychobehavioral traits favored by the nocturnal niche might be counter-productive, increasing contagion rates of a disease that can evade the behavioral immune system because its disease cues are often nonexistent or mild. The eveningness epidemiological liability hypothesis presented here suggests that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the evening-oriented psychobehavioral profile can have collectively harmful consequences: there is a clash of core tendencies between the nocturnal chronotype and the recent viral transmission-mitigating safety guidelines and rules. The pandemic safety protocols disrupt much normal social activity, particularly at night when making new social contacts is desired. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is contagious even in presymptomatic and asymptomatic individuals, which enables it to mostly evade our evolved contagious disease avoidance mechanisms. A growing body of research has indirectly shown that individual traits interfering with social distancing and anti-contagion measures are related to those of the nocturnal chronotype. Indeed, some of the social contexts that have been identified as superspreading events occur at night, such as in restaurants, bars, and nightclubs. Furthermore, nocturnal environmental conditions favor the survival of the SARS-CoV-2 virus much longer than daytime conditions. We compare the eveningness epidemiological liability hypothesis with other factors related to non-compliance with pandemic safety protocols, namely sex, age, and life history. Although there is not yet a direct link between the nocturnal chronotype and non-compliance with pandemic safety protocols, security measures and future empirical research should take this crucial evolutionary mismatch and adaptive metaproblem into account, and focus on how to avoid nocturnal individuals becoming superspreaders, offering secure alternatives for nocturnal social activities.

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Substance use and abuse, COVID-19-related distress, and disregard for social distancing: A network analysis

Cited by 157 publications

References 16 publications

Psychiatric emergency visit trends and characteristics in a mental health epicenter in Istanbul during COVID-19 lockdown

Psychiatric emergency visit trends and characteristics in a mental health epicenter in Istanbul during COVID-19 lockdown

Leaning Into Whole Health: Sustaining System Transformation While Supporting Patients and Employees During COVID-19

COVID-19 Pandemic on Fire: Evolved Propensities for Nocturnal Activities as a Liability Against Epidemiological Control

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