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Pain in America is Killing Middle Aged Adults

lonely sea evocativeFor every modern country in the world, great strides have been made in increasing the longevity of people’s lives. This is due in large part to better rates of survival due to treatment improvements in major traditional killers like cancer and heart disease as well as a decrease in smoking rates.

In the past several decades, a great deal of research and health advocacy has focused on gaps in health populations. Most notably, African Americans, particularly African American men, live shorter lives than their white, Hispanic and Asian counterparts, but this gap has been slowly shrinking.

But now, there is a new gap to worry about, and it is surprising: white American middle-aged people with less than a college education. The research has been conducted by economists Angus Deaton and his wife Anne Case, professors at Princeton. They have presented their findings and were published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Since 1999, the death rate for this group has been steadily rising.

Here are the facts and figures.

  • For white men and women, ages 45-64, their mortality rate has risen by .5% per year from 1999-2013.
  • This was a dramatic change. Prior to 1999, the mortality rate had been dropping by 2% per year.
  • It appears that illness plays a role, but the major culprits seem to be: suicide, alcohol abuse and substance abuse, particularly illicit drugs.
  • This increased mortality adds up to 500,000 people, who would otherwise be alive, a true epidemic.

At the heart of these statistics lies one serious issue: pain.

It appears that chronic physical and psychological pain is affecting this age group dramatically. This epidemic of chronic pain in middle age white Americans snowballs into a large-scale health crisis, one that is getting worse. This chronic pain is then leading to a whole series of terrible events:

  • Those in pain are abusing legal and illegal drugs at higher frequencies.
  • Alcoholism rates are increasing in this population. Indeed there has been a sharp uptick in diseases that are caused by alcohol, particularly cirrhosis of the liver.
  • In the most tragic cases, these men and women are taking their own lives, feeling hopeless and in constant pain.

Deaton and Case found that respondents of this age group who complained of being in pain were at a heightened risk for suicide.

Of special note is the increased mortality of women in this group, who typically had greater longevity than their male counterparts. Their mortality worsened even more than then the men’s.

Deaton and Case were not looking for these results. They stumbled upon them as they were researching government statistics on mortality. When they first realized the dramatic increase, they assumed there had been a mistake.

They admit that their research doesn’t have the answers, but it does pose significant questions about the overall health of those who are within shouting distance of retirement and Medicare. Are these middle-agers approaching retirement in much less healthy form than those who have preceded them? What are the implications for this age group, if they survive, enter retirement, possibly with pain, addictions and psychiatric illness accompanying them into what should be their golden years? How can this epidemic be short circuited? It appears that heroin plays a large role in these deaths; what can be done to break the addiction to heroin?

Click to read Angus Deaton and Anne Case’s paper presented to the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Filed Under: Depression Tagged With: addiction and pain, mortality rates, suicide

Lincoln’s Legacy: His Greatest Battle was with Depression

lincolnOn President’s Day, it is a good time to reflect on the life of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln appeared to suffer from clinical depression, and yet others were drawn to him. Amazingly for Lincoln’s time, those around him accepted his dark moods and did not stigmatize his mental illness. Had his peers and family rejected Lincoln’s depression, we may have been robbed of one of our greatest leaders ever.

Lincoln certainly faced unspeakable personal trials and probably the greatest challenges any U.S. president has ever had to face: the literal break-up of the nation. These facts alone would give him permission to be “down” sometimes. But Lincoln, just like many who face depression, would even be gloomy at what would seem to others the happiest of times: his first triumphant nomination for President, for instance.

Lincoln’s dark moods were infamous. His friends called him melancholy. He was known to cry in public and to even talk about suicide. Lincoln told a confidante that he didn’t carry a knife in his pocket, because he was afraid of the consequences. When Lincoln’s friends feared for his safety, they would band together to check in on him regularly.

Lincoln’s depression besieged him before effective drug therapy or talking therapy were helpful or even in vogue and so he did not have these in his arsenal in his great battle.

But Lincoln’s depression did endow him with three incredible gifts: the need for introspection, the desire to be productive and compassion for those who suffered.

What is most inspiring is how Lincoln used his depression to actually do great things. Lincoln would spend time in solitude, because he just couldn’t handle having to deal with people. It was during these introspective times that Lincoln worked out complex problems and heart-wrenching decisions. Lincoln’s wisdom actually was an outgrowth of his aloneness, which was a result of his depression.  Perhaps his depression created an inward thinking process that allowed him to be a visionary.

Lincoln also had a great desire to accomplish something and to find some meaning in his life, even if it sometimes felt like torture. In order to be productive, Lincoln began to establish daily routines of learning, of working, of doing. He discovered, as so many who suffer from depression do, that having a routine, whether it is work, voluntarism or just a daily task list, forces a person to just keep going on, despite the brain’s message to quit or ruminate.

Finally, Lincoln’s depression gave him insight into all who suffer. It appears that his adversity gave him the strength to battle the evil spread of slavery, when others could allow it to continue to run its course. He truly believed in his cause, considering it a moral imperative.

For fascinating reading on Abraham Lincoln’s depression, we recommend  Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness

Filed Under: Depression Tagged With: Lincoln's depression, suicide

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Getting you back to your active life: that is the philosophy that Michigan Spine & Pain follows. Read more.

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