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Psychological distress as a systemic economic risk in the USA

Abstract

During the first two decades of the twenty-first century, the USA experienced a crisis of increasing psychological distress that was associated with rising morbidity and mortality, especially among young people. The increasing distress probably arose from changing economic, social, technological and political conditions that, unabated, may continue to progress in coming years. The increasing psychological distress may lead to cascading social and economic consequences that further compound suffering, analogous to the spreading impacts of climate change. To address climate change, the USA is beginning to pursue a multisectoral set of policy interventions that include several novel economic strategies. Learning from climate policy, the USA can further address rising psychological distress through: (1) the building of planning, data and regulatory capabilities across agencies; (2) investing in solutions that target root causes and mitigate effects; (3) requiring relevant public disclosures from corporations; and (4) updating policies to reflect potential impacts from psychological distress.

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Acknowledgements

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Long Island City, NY, USA

    Nathaniel Z. Counts

  2. Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    David E. Bloom

  3. UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Neal Halfon

  4. Department of Pediatrics, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Neal Halfon

  5. Department of Health Policy and Management, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Neal Halfon

  6. Department of Public Policy, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Neal Halfon

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  1. Nathaniel Z. Counts
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  3. Neal Halfon
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the conceptualization of the manuscript. N.Z.C. led the initial drafting, and D.E.B. and N.H. revised it for important intellectual content.

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Nathaniel Z. Counts.

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Counts, N.Z., Bloom, D.E. & Halfon, N. Psychological distress as a systemic economic risk in the USA.
Nat. Mental Health (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-023-00161-6

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  • Received: 12 September 2022

  • Accepted: 11 October 2023

  • Published: 27 November 2023

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-023-00161-6

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