"...drug-related deaths among middle-aged white men increased more than 25-fold between 1980 and 2014..."

Opioids and Obesity Driving Increased Death Rates for White Men, Not Despair

"Those reports claim “despair deaths” — by suicide, alcohol, and drugs — are on the rise among white Americans, particularly men, facing a lack of economic opportunity and an increase in chronic pain.

Instead, the new study from researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder finds that drug-related deaths among middle-aged white men increased more than 25-fold between 1980 and 2014, with the bulk of that spike occurring since the mid-1990s when addictive prescription opioids became broadly available.

“We find little empirical support for the pain-and distress-based explanations for rising mortality in the U.S. white population,” said lead author Ryan Masters, an assistant professor of sociology at University of Colorado’s Institute of Behavioral Science. “Instead, recent mortality increases have likely been shaped by the U.S. opiate epidemic.”

Masters said metabolic diseases, including heart disease, obesity, and diabetes, also play a key role. After years of declining death rates for such diseases, thanks to new drugs and procedures, that progress has slowed for men and stalled for women, according to the study’s findings.

“When it comes to mortality, we are just starting to see the real health consequences of the obesity epidemic,” he said"