Harvard specialist focuses on opioid crisis as U.S. life expectancy drops
Life expectancy in the U.S. declined in 2017, largely because of increases in suicide and lethal overdose, according to reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Though slight, the drop from 78.7 in 2016 to 78.6 in 2017 marks the third consecutive year of decline in a statistic that in 1900 stood at 49.24. Experts see the fingerprint of the opioid epidemic in the numbers, as well as the economic inequality, depression, and despair that elevate suicide risk. R. Kathryn McHugh, an associate psychologist at McLean Hospital and an assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, responded to the CDC data in an interview with the Gazette. Q&A R. Kathryn McHugh GAZETTE: One report showed that life expectancy fell between 2016 and 2017 and two others detailed the key factors in that decline: suicide and overdose deaths. Did those trends surprise you? McHUGH: Unfortunately, no. Both the suicide trend and drug overdose trend have been...