Are we Truly “Safer-At-Home”? A Test of Contextual Effects on Mental Health and Drug Overdose Incidents During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study examined whether the social restrictions stemming from COVID-19 impacted the locations of mental health and drug overdose incidents, while controlling for immediate and community contextual indices. Addresses for mental health/overdose calls to law enforcement or emergency medical services between January 1, 2018 and August 13, 2020 were collected from one police department in the Midwestern United States. Businesses and previous victimization/offending were joined with parcels (level-1; N = 20,019), whereas local services and socioeconomic indicators were joined with block groups (level-2; N = 32), to allow for a multi-level (HLM7) examination of context on mental health/overdose incidents. Event Rate Ratios (ERR) revealed the greatest contextual effects took place following social distancing mandates. Findings highlight the importance of allocating to areas with the highest likelihood of reporting incidents and suggest that parcels with a history of sex offenses, drug offenses, and prior mental health calls may benefit the greatest from preventative resources.

Keywords

COVID-19 drug overdoses mental health neighborhoods safer-at-home order service providers victimization

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alexander

A. C.

Ward

K. D.

Forde

D. R.

Stockton

(2019). Are posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms pathways to smoking relapse after a natural disaster? Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 195, 178–185.

Anakwenze

Zuberi

(2013). Mental health and poverty in the inner city. Health and Social Work, 38(3), 147–157. https://doi.org/10.1093/hsw/hlt013

Blau

P. M.

(1977). Inequality and heterogeneity: A primitive theory of social structure (vol. 7). Free Press.

Brooks

S. K.

Webster

R. K.

Smith

L. E.

Woodland

Wessely

Greenberg

Rubin

G. J.

(2020). The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: Rapid review of the evidence. The Lancet, 395(10227), 912–920. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30460-8

Cahill

Mulligan

(2007). Using geographically weighted regression to explore local crime patterns. Social Science Computer Review, 25(2), 174–194. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439307298925

Cohen

L. E.

Felson

(1979). Social change and crime rate trends: A routine activity approach. American Sociological Review, 44(4), 588–608. https://doi.org/10.2307/2094589

Conway

K. P.

Compton

Stinson

F. S.

Grant

B. F.

(2006). Lifetime comorbidity of DSM-IV mood and anxiety disorders and specific drug use disorders: Results from the national epidemiologic survey on alcohol and related conditions. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 67(2), 247–257. https://doi.org/10.4088/jcp.v67n0211

Corley

(2021). Massive 1-year risk in homicide rates collided with the pandemic in 2020. National Public Radio. www.npr.org/2021/01/06/953254623/massive-1-year-rise-in-homicide-rates-collided-with-the- pandemic-in-2020

Czeisler

M. É.

Rashon

I. L.

Emiko

Joshua

F. W.

Aleta

Rashid

Shantha

M. W. R.

(2020). Mental health, substance use, and suicidal ideation during the COVID-19 pandemic—United States, June 24–30, 2020. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 69(32), 1049–1057. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6932a1

10.

Daigle

L. E.

Hancock

K. P.

Chafin

T. C.

(2021). CoViD-19 and its link to victimization among college students. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 46(5), 683–703. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-021-09638-5

11.

DeLeon-Granados

(1999). Travels through crime and place: Community building as crime control. Northeastern University Press.

12.

Drug Enforcement Administration (2020). COVID-19 information page. Retrieved from. www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/coronavirus.html

13.

Galea

Ahern

Resnick

Kilpatrick

Bucuvalas

Gold

Vlahov

(2002). Psychological sequelae of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City. New England Journal of Medicine, 346(13), 982–987. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsa013404

14.

Gregg

Barrowclough

Haddock

(2007). Reasons for increased substance use in psychosis. Clinical Psychology Review, 27(4), 494–510. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2006.09.004

15.

Hindelang

M. J.

Gottfredson

M. R.

Garofalo

(1978). Victims of personal crime: An empirical foundation for a theory of personal victimization. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.

16.

Jetelina

K. K.

Knell

Molsberry

R. J.

(2020). Changes in intimate partner violence during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in the USA. Injury Prevention, 27(1), 93–97. https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2020-043831

17.

Johnson

N. J.

Roman

C. G.

Mendlein

A. K.

Harding

Francis

Hendrick

(2020). Exploring the influence of drug trafficking gangs on overdose deaths in the largest narcotics market in the Eastern United States. Social Sciences, 9(11), 202–233. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci9110202

18.

Konkel

Hoffman

(2021). Immediate and neighborhood contextual effects on intentional, accidental, and fatal drug overdoses in a non-urban jurisdiction. Deviant Behavior, 42(11), 1494–1511. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2020.1756457

19.

Kornhauser

R. R.

(1978). Social sources of delinquency: An appraisal of analytic models. University of Chicago Press.

20.

Lawson

Piel

M. H.

Simon

(2020). Child maltreatment during the COVID-19 pandemic: Consequences of parental job loss on psychological and physical abuse towards children. Child Abuse & Neglect, 110(pt 2), 104709. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104709

21.

Massey

(2001). Does It Take a Village? Community Effects on Children, Adolescents, and Families. In Booth

Crouter

A.C.

(Eds.), The prodigal paradigm returns: Ecology comes back to sociology. Lawrence Erlbaum.

22.

Mazza

M. G.

De Lorenzo

Conte

Poletti

Vai

Bollettini

Benedetti

(2020). Anxiety and depression in COVID-19 survivors: Role of inflammatory and clinical predictors. Brain, behavior, and immunity, 89, 594–600. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2020.07.037

23.

Oetting

E. R.

Donnermeyer

J. F.

Deffenbacher

J. L.

(1998). Primary socialization theory. The influence of the community on drug use and deviance. III. Substance Use and Misuse, 33(8), 1629–1665. https://doi.org/10.3109/10826089809058948

24.

Oyesanya

Lopez-Morinigo

Dutta

(2015). Systematic review of suicide in economic recession. World Journal of Psychiatry, 5(2), 243–254. https://doi.org/10.5498/wjp.v5.i2.243

25.

Piquero

A. R.

Jennings

W. G.

Jemison

Kaukinen

Knaul

F. M.

(2021). Domestic violence during Covid-19: Evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis. Council on Criminal Justice.

26.

Raudenbush

S. W.

Bryk

A. S.

Congdon

R. T.

(2011). HLM 7 for windows[computer software]. Scientific Software International, Inc.

27.

Rogers

J. P.

Chesney

Oliver

Pollak

T. A.

McGuire

Fusar-Poli

David

A. S.

(2020). Psychiatric and neuropsychiatric presentations associated with severe coronavirus infections: A systematic review and meta-analysis with comparison to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(7), 611–627. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30203-0

28.

Sareen

Chartier

Paulus

M. P.

Stein

M. B.

(2006). Illicit drug use and anxiety disorders: Findings from two community surveys. Psychiatry Research, 142(1), 11–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2006.01.009

29.

Shaw

C. R.

McKay

H. D.

(1942). Juvenile delinquency and urban areas: A study of rates of delinquents in relation to different characteristics of local communities in american cities. University of Chicago Press.

30.

Silver

(2002). Mental disorder and violent victimization: the mediating role of involvement in conflicted social relationships. Criminology, 40(1), 191–212. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2002.tb00954.x

31.

Simon

N.M.

Saxe

G. N.

Marmar

C. R.

(2020). Mental health disorders related to COVID-19–related deaths. JAMA, 324(15), 1493–1494. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.19632

32.

Slavova

Rock

Bush

H. M.

Quesinberry

Walsh

S. L.

(2020). Signal of increased opioid overdose during COVID-19 from emergency medical services data. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 214, 108176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2020.108176

33.

Teasdale

Daigle

L. E.

Gann

(2021). The contingent effect of guardianship on victimization: An examination of people with and without mental health problems. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(11–12), 5186–5208. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260518804174

34.

Thompson

M. P.

Arias

Basile

K. C.

Desai

(2002). The association between childhood physical and sexual victimization and health problems in adulthood in a nationally representative sample of women. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 17(10), 1115–1129. https://doi.org/10.1177/088626002236663

35.

Turner

B. J.

Liang

(2015). Drug overdose in a retrospective cohort with non-cancer pain treated with opioids, antidepressants, and/or sedative-hypnotics: Interactions with mental health disorders. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 30(8), 1081–1096. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-015-3199-4

36.

United States Census Bureau (2018). American community survey. Retrieved from. www.census.gov/acs/www/data/data-tables-and-tools/data-profiles/2018/

37.

United States Census Bureau (2019). Quick facts. Retrieved from. www.census.gov/quickfacts/

38.

United States Census Bureau (2020a). Population and housing unit estimates. Retrieved from. www.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest.html

39.

United States Census Bureau (2020b). Urban and rural. Retrieved from. www.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest.html

40.

Vlahov

Galea

Ahern

Resnick

Boscarino

J. A.

Gold

Kilpatrick

(2004). Consumption of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana among New York City residents six months after the September 11 terrorist attacks. American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 30(2), 385–407. https://doi.org/10.1081/ada-120037384

41.

Warner

B. D.

(2003). The role of attenuated culture in social disorganization theory. Criminology, 41(1), 73–98. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2003.tb00982.x

42.

Weisler

Chrisman

(2020). September 15)Psychiatry perspectives on patient care in a post-pandemic world [Webinar]. PsychU.

43.

Welch

A. E.

Zweig

K. C.

McAteer

J. M.

Brackbill

R. M.

(2017). Intensity of binge drinking a decade after the September 11th terror attacks among exposed individuals. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 52(2), 192–198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2016.10.034

44.

Wilson

W. J.

(1987). The truly disadvantaged. 136. University of Chicago Press.

45.

World Health Organization (WHO) (2020). Naming the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the virus that causes it. www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/naming-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-2019)-and-the-virus-that-causes-it