WISCONSIN (SPECTRUM NEWS) -- Some good news for Wisconsin coming into the pandemic.  A national study found a slight decrease overall in deaths from alcohol, drugs and suicide.  

But the big question as we move through 2020 is how COVID-19 will affect those trends?

Trust for America's Health found some good news in its annual data collection.  In the U.S. overall deaths from drugs, alcohol and suicide did not increase from 2017-2018.

"It's the first year in several years that we're seeing a leveling off," John Auerbach, President and CEO of the Washington D.C. based nonprofit shared.

The "Pain in the Nation" report breaks down the data by state, and the numbers show Wisconsin making progress.  Drug-related deaths were down by 8%.  The suicide rate dropped by 4%, and there was no change in deaths from alcohol.  An overall decrease across the board of about 5%.

"That's a sign something was working, in terms of the response by the state.  That might have been effective programs, it might have been public consciousness, it might have been the health care system and multiple sectors have a role," Auerbach said.

But overall Auerbach pointed out the numbers are still disturbing.  In 2018 almost 152,000 Americans died as a result of drugs, alcohol or suicide.  "It is tied to such things as unemployment, crisis in people's lives that have to do with housing or loss of a job," Auerbach told us.

Those conditions are only getting worse with the pandemic.  Auerbach acknowledged you now have to look at different indicators to get a handle on real-time trends.  "Looking at some of the real-time excess deaths in states and cities for reasons other than COVID-19.  People may in fact be dying from alcohol, drugs and suicide because of the situation created by COVID-19."  

Auerbach believes the key to getting people help lies in tailored interventions for groups more at risk than others and said special attention is needed in these three areas: