A new study found that deaths from despair — including overdoses, suicides and alcohol-related illnesses — began to rise among middle-aged, less-educated white Americans even before the spread of opioids into communities.[1] Research has shown a current decline in church attendance among this group that correlates with an increase in these deaths, suggesting that societal changes preceded the opioid epidemic.[1] The authors note that the advent of OxyContin and other prescription opioids likely intensified an already ongoing trend of increased deaths from despair.[1] The study analyzed the time sequence of events and points out that the increase in deaths began years before the commercial distribution of these drugs.[1] The main finding, then, is that the opioid crisis is not occurring entirely independently, but is exacerbating a long-standing problem in that demographic.[1] The authors therefore describe the opioid epidemic as a factor that exacerbated the already existing increase in suicides, overdoses and alcohol-related diseases.[1]