Intensive childhood intervention program could help reduce 'deaths of despair' Mortality rates among young adults are rising in the U.S. due in part to "deaths of despair" -- preventable deaths from suicide, drug overdoses and alcohol-related liver disease. An intensive childhood intervention program called Fast Track could help reduce these deaths by reducing risky behaviors in adolescence and young adulthood, finds new research from Duke University and the Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group. "To reduce deaths of despair, we must prevent the hopelessness and destructive behaviors that often lead to these deaths," says study co-author Kenneth A. Dodge, the William McDougall Distinguished Professor of Public Policy Studies at Duke's Sanford School of Public Policy. Dodge is a member of the Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group that created the Fast Track program.