HealthDay Reports: COVID-19 Pandemic May Lead to 75,000 'Deaths of Despair'
Deaths of despair are tied to multiple factors — like unemployment, fear and dread and isolation — and the COVID-19 pandemic may be accelerating conditions that lead to these types of death.
COVID-19 Pandemic May Lead to 75,000 'Deaths of Despair'
FRIDAY, May 8, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- COVID-19 has directly claimed tens of thousands of U.S. lives, but conditions stemming from the novel coronavirus -- rampant unemployment, isolation and an uncertain future -- could lead to 75,000 deaths from drug or alcohol abuse and suicide, new research suggests.
Deaths from these causes are known as "deaths of despair." And the COVID-19 pandemic may be accelerating conditions that lead to such deaths.
"Deaths of despair are tied to multiple factors, like unemployment, fear and dread, and isolation. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were already an unprecedented number of deaths of despair. We wanted to estimate how this pandemic would change that number moving forward," said one of the study's authors, Benjamin Miller. He's chief strategy officer for the Well Being Trust in Oakland, Calif.