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AbstractThe first formal statements made by members of the US Congress relating to the murder of George Floyd and subsequent protests were coded on whether racism was identified as a cause. We also coded the number of victims of police or racial violence mentioned, and word usage relating to historical and systemic discrimination. We tested the predictive effect of congressperson's race, gender, US geographic region, political party, percentage of the congressperson's jurisdiction that was African American, and state support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Democratic politicians were more likely than Republicans to identify racism as a causal factor, to name more victims of police or racial violence, and to mention systemic discrimination in their statements. Region and constituent demographics also predicted mentions of systemic discrimination, but the model did not predict mentions of historical discrimination. Findings are interpreted in light of the Marley Hypothesis, motivation to identify racism, and consequences of political discourse.

Despite the availability of many treatment options, depressive disorders remain a global public health problem. Even in affluent nations, 70% of reported cases either do not receive the recommended level of treatment or do not get treated at all, and this percentage does not reflect cases of depression that go unreported due to lack of access to health care, stigma, or other reasons. In developing countries, the World Health Organization estimates that <10% receive proper depression care due to poverty, stigma, and lack of governmental mental health resources and providers. Current treatments do not work for everyone, and even people who achieve remission face a high risk of recurrence and residual disability. The development of low-cost effective interventions that can serve either as initial therapy for mild symptoms or as adjunctive therapy for partial responders to medication is an immense unmet need. Positive activity interventions (PAIs) teach individuals ways to increase their positive thinking, positive affect, and positive behaviors. The majority of such interventions, which have obtained medium-size effect sizes, have been conducted with nondepressed individuals, but two randomized controlled studies in patients with mild clinical depression have reported promising initial findings. In this article, the authors review the relevant literature on the effectiveness of various types of PAIs, draw on social psychology, affective neuroscience and psychophamacology research to propose neural models for how PAIs might relieve depression, and discuss the steps needed to translate the potential promise of PAIs as clinical treatments for individuals with major and minor depressive disorders.