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Weir says pain may underlie rise in suicide and substance-related deaths among white middle-aged Americans
November 03, 2015
The mortality rate for white men and women ages 45-54 with less than a college education increased markedly between 1999 and 2013, most likely because of problems with legal and illegal drugs, alcohol and suicide, a new study concludes. David Weir says these results show that this population is suffering physically and psychically. “I think it has to have something to do [with] the pain underlying it. That is the age when people have their midlife crisis . . . I think it has to do with that stage of life, and physical ailments do start to accumulate at that age.”