Research by affiliate Will Dow on increasing rates of depression among middle-age Americans – Economist 

Research by affiliate Will Dow on increasing rates of depression among middle-age Americans:

“The recent reversal in life expectancy in America has focused much attention on the “deaths of despair” of poorly educated middle-aged white men. According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) overall life expectancy fell for the second time in three years in 2017, driven by a surge in opioid overdoses and suicide, at which whites are most at risk. But a new paper by Lauren Gaydosh, a sociologist at the Center for Medicine Health and Society at Vanderbilt University suggests that unhappiness and its symptoms are widespread in middle age Americans of all races and ethnicities.

Ms Gaydosh and her colleagues used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to track the health and behaviour of a group of Americans first surveyed in the mid-1990s when they were teenagers. They were most recently interviewed in 2016 when they were in their late 30s and 40s. The researchers studied the data on depressive symptoms and reported contemplation of suicide. They also tracked behaviours including heavy drinking and marijuana use.”

See more: Depression is increasing among Americans reaching middle age – Depths of despair