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Coronavirus (COVID-19)

The Healthy Brain and Child Development Study—Shedding Light on Opioid Exposure, COVID-19, and Health Disparities

Educational Objective
To identify the key insights or developments described in this article

1 Credit CME

JAMA Psychiatry

Published Online: December 9, 2020

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Article Information and Disclosures

Nora D. Volkow, MD¹;

Joshua A. Gordon, MD, PhD²;

Michelle P. Freund, PhD¹

Author Affiliations

¹National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
²National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland

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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic highlights longstanding health disparities in the United States. African American individuals contract the disease at much higher rates than White individuals and are nearly twice as likely to die of it. Hispanic/Latinx people and American Indian and Alaska Native people are also overrepresented among confirmed cases.¹ Structural racism fosters vast inequalities among individuals of color, including economic disadvantage as a result of low-paying jobs, discrimination in education and the workforce, underrepresentation in research,² and lack of access to adequate health care and healthy foods. These and other associated factors, including the higher prevalence of comorbid conditions, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, contribute to the greater morbidity and mortality associated with COVID-19 infection in Black, Latinx, and American Indian and Alaska Native populations.

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Article Information

Corresponding Author: Michelle P. Freund, PhD, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, 3WFN RM 09C71 MSC 6021, 301 N Stonestreet Ave, Bethesda, MD 20892 (freundm@mail.nih.gov)

Published Online: December 9, 2020. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.3803

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported.

Additional Contributions: We thank Eric M. Wargo, PhD, National Institute on Drug Abuse Office of Science Policy and Communication, for providing writing support. Dr Wargo did not receive special compensation for his help with writing because this is part of his normal duties.

References

The COVID Tracking Project. The COVID racial data tracker. Published 2020. Accessed November 5, 2020. http://covidtracking.com/race

George S , Duran N , Norris K . A systematic review of barriers and facilitators to minority research participation among African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders. Am J Public Health. 2014;104(2):e16-e31. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2013.301706 PubMed Google Scholar Crossref

National Institutes of Health. Healthy Brain and Child Development Study. Published 2020. Accessed November 5, 2020. https://heal.nih.gov/research/infants-and-children/healthy-brain

Marshall AT , Betts S , Kan EC , McConnell R , Lanphear BP , Sowell ER . Association of lead-exposure risk and family income with childhood brain outcomes. Nat Med. 2020;26(1):91-97. doi:10.1038/s41591-019-0713-y PubMed Google Scholar Crossref

Mullins TS , Campbell EM , Hogeveen J . Neighborhood deprivation shapes motivational-neurocircuit recruitment in children. Psychol Sci. 2020;31(7):881-889. doi:10.1177/0956797620929299 PubMed Google Scholar Crossref

Assari S . Family socioeconomic status and exposure to childhood trauma: racial differences. Children (Basel). 2020;7(6):E57. PubMed Google Scholar

Assari S , Boyce S , Akhlaghipour G , Bazargan M , Caldwell CH . Reward responsiveness in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study: African Americans’ diminished returns of parental education. Brain Sci. 2020;10(6):E391. doi:10.3390/brainsci10060391 PubMed Google Scholar

Brody GH , Gray JC , Yu T , et al. Protective prevention effects on the association of poverty with brain development. JAMA Pediatr. 2017;171(1):46-52. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2016.2988 PubMed Google Scholar Crossref

AMA CME Accreditation Information

Credit Designation Statement: The American Medical Association designates this Journal-based CME activity activity for a maximum of 1.00  AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Successful completion of this CME activity, which includes participation in the evaluation component, enables the participant to earn up to:

1.00 Medical Knowledge MOC points in the American Board of Internal Medicine's (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program;;
1.00 Self-Assessment points in the American Board of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery’s (ABOHNS) Continuing Certification program;
1.00 MOC points in the American Board of Pediatrics’ (ABP) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program;
1.00 Lifelong Learning points in the American Board of Pathology’s (ABPath) Continuing Certification program; and
1.00 CME points in the American Board of Surgery’s (ABS) Continuing Certification program

It is the CME activity provider's responsibility to submit participant completion information to ACCME for the purpose of granting MOC credit.