What I find interesting is that all the reports I've seen / heard emphasized the 44 - 54 age group. If you look at the third chart in this post the increase affected all age groups of non-hispanic whites.

The discussion at the end of the study is not confined to the easy availability of drugs. It also mentions 'economic insecurity', 'financial insecurity', and widening income inequality. The large numbers on disability is blamed on increased morbidity or poor health.

Note: poisoning = over dose.

I posit the reason the increase in mortality and morbidity is mainly confined to non-hispanic whites in the US (of all ages) is the success of political correctness and the fundamental transformation of the US which began before Zero's reign.

A group of middle-aged whites in the U.S. is dying at a startling rate
By Lenny Bernstein and Joel Achenbach
November 2, 2015




Death rate for U.S. non-Hispanic whites (USW), U.S. Hispanics and six comparison countries, aged 45-54. (Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.)



Mortality by cause among white non-Hispanics ages 45-54. (Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.)



Death by poisoning, suicide, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis for white non-Hispanics of varying age groups. (Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.)

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More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/...b2a7_story.html

Also:
Study: Deaths rates rising in middle-aged whites
By MIKE STOBBE
Nov 2, 3:01 PM EST

NEW YORK (AP) -- The U.S. death rate has been falling for decades, but researchers have detected one group in which the rates have been steadily ticking up - middle-aged white people. Suicides and deaths from drug overdose and alcohol abuse are being blamed.

Deaths rates for other races have continued to fall, as they have for whites 65 and older. But death rates for whites 35 to 44 have been level recently, they're beginning to turn up for whites 55 to 64, and - most strikingly - death rates for whites ages 45 to 54 have risen by half a percent per year since 1998, said the authors, Anne Case and Angus Deaton of Princeton University

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/U...-11-02-15-01-45

PDF of study:

Zitat

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This paper documents a marked increase in the all-cause mortality of middle-aged white non-Hispanic m en and women in the United States between 1999 and 2013. This change reversed decades of progress in ortality and was unique to the United States; no other rich country saw a similar turnaround. The midlife mortality reversal was confined
to white non-Hispanics; black non-Hispanics and Hispanics at midlife, and those aged 65 and above in every racial and ethnic group, contin ued to see mortality rates fall. This increase for whites was largely accounted for by increasing death rates from drug and alcohol poisonings, suicide, and chronic liver diseases and cirrhosis ............

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http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/1...393112.full.pdf