An important point of clarity: according to the article, 2/3rds of those men taking opiods (and not in the labor force) are taking <i>prescription</i> pain medicine.<p>That seems consistent, since severe pain generally prevents or limits work.
Just finished a thought provoking book on my flight this afternoon titled Man's Search for Meaning which may shed light on potential underlying causes of this crisis. Interesting that decades ago psychologists observed broad differences in the psychological "health" of men living in the US versus Europe for example that potentially left them more susceptible to physiologically degenerative ailments like depression, suicide and drug addiction. I think that one of the defining challenges of our life time will be to figure out a way to broadly replace in society the sense of purpose and meaning one derives from religion and spirituality in an increasingly secularized world.
This title is not in line with HN guidelines: "Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait."<p>I would like to ask the OP to refrain from posting provocative titles which don't comply with the guidelines. I get that the issue is serious but all that title did was alarm me and waste my time.
How much is this due to people really needing these prescriptions, and then aren't informed or helped quit, and how much is this due to plain overprescription?<p>It should be pretty easy to compare with any comparable country to see what the difference in opioid prescription is.
> <i>Prime age men who are out of the labor force, however, report less happiness and more sadness during their days than do unemployed men, although they evaluate their lives in general more highly than unemployed men. Prime age and older women who are out of the labor force report emotional well-being and life evaluations in general that are about on par with employed women the same age</i><p>Tens of millions of men are suffering in a way that women aren't. It seems when something affects the sexes differently society treats it as gender issue and seeks to help women specifically.<p>There appear to be specific gender issues here hurting men more. I'd hypothesize unequal expectations. Is this an issue to look at from a gendered perspective?
The Opium Wars brought China to its knees, from which it is only now recovering. I'm surprised that the leaders of the US aren't more worried about this.
I think the thing that annoys me about modern medical trends such as the enormous rise in obesity, Alzheimer's, autism and chronic pain and ensuing opiod abuse is the shoulder shrugging by the medical establishment as to the cause. Any meaningful change for the worse in medical statistics over time seems to be uninteresting to most of the medical community and is almost always ascribed to "better reporting" or moral failings of the patient.
This title is whack. Here's the quote from the article:<p><i>"...In earlier research presented at the Boston Fed in 2016, Krueger found that nearly half of prime age men who are not in the labor force take pain medication on a daily basis, and that two-thirds of those men—or about 2 million—take prescription pain medication on a daily basis..."</i><p>I take a baby aspirin every morning, so I would qualify as somebody taking pain medication daily.<p>I believe the opiod problem in the U.S. is an extremely serious thing, therefore we need to be very careful about what kinds of information we stick in our heads regarding it.<p>There's a ton of correlation here, things like "Over the last 15 years, LFP fell more in counties where more opioids were prescribed"<p>Well, okay. If more people are being injured and are in pain, they would get medication, right? And therefore there would be less people in the workforce. Because people are on pain meds doesn't mean that's keeping them from work. It might mean that things that keep you from work significantly involve pain.<p>I have no intention of trashing the article. It's worth reading. I would simply advise caution in jumping to conclusions.<p>My opinion is that mankind is finally creating the perfect world (relatively speaking compared to all of history): plenty of food and shelter. The internet and gaming means you'll never be bored. Throw in a little pharmacological assistance for any pain, boredom, ennui, depression, or loneliness you're feeling, and what more could you want?<p>But that's rampant speculation, which I readily admit. I worry about articles that encourage reader speculation without explicitly calling it out.
Why do we continue to demonize those that use prescription pain meds? In doing so, we force them out of mainstream society, hurting our economy and communities in the process.