“If people are depressed and stressed out, they might drink more, use tobacco more, or eat more comfort foods,” says Sarah Burgard, a sociologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.¶¶DOWNTURNS’ DOWNSIDES¶Burgard and Ruhm met in Ann Arbor, in October 2004. They were two of a couple of dozen economists, epidemiologists, sociologists and psychologists tapped to co-author a book on the health effects of social and economic—or ‘non-health’—policies. The meeting had brought them together to share initial outlines for their chapters. But a divide soon appeared. As fellow participants proposed disparate takes on how a failing economy helps or harms health, some people grew “red and heated”, Burgard recalls.