As White ‘Deaths of Despair’ Made News, Black Ones Skyrocketed

By Jennifer Porter Gore | Word In Black Overview: The “deaths of despair” theory reached the national agenda 2015 when two Princeton University economists argued that poor mental health, stemming from lack of economic opportunities, was behind rising premature mortality rates among less-educated whites. (WIB) – A little less than a decade ago, it was alarming news that shook the nation. Deaths from suicide, drug overdose, and alcohol-related liver disease were slashing the life expectancy among white Americans.  The “deaths of despair” phenomenon centered mostly on non-college-educated whites whose declining socioeconomic conditions, researchers said, led to a spike in premature deaths between 1999 and 2013.& But researchers at the University of California-Los Angeles medical school and other institutions have found that deaths of despair have skyrocketed during the last 7 years. The spike, researchers say, has been fueled by the exploding use of illegal drugs such as fentanyl and heroin, as well as an increase in alcohol-related deaths around the same time as the COVID-19 pandemic began.& RELATED:& ‘Fourth Wave’ of Opioid Epidemic Propelled by& Fentanyl& and Meth In fact, “[f]rom 2015 to 2022, the mortality rate from deaths of despair nearly tripled among Black people and it also has...