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Disease killing white Americans goes way deeper than opioids
The pain in their bodies might reflect a "spiritual" pain caused by "cumulative distress, and the failure of life to turn out as expected", say two economists
Add BT as a preferred sourcePublished Mon, Mar 27, 2017 · 09:50 PM
Washington
IN RICH countries, death rates are supposed to decline. But in the past decade and a half, middle-aged white Americans have actually been dying faster. Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton first pointed out this disturbing trend in a 2015 study that highlighted three "diseases of despair": drugs, drinking and suicide.
The pair have released a deeper analysis that clears up one of the biggest misconceptions about their earlier research.
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