About the Nation Survey on Drug Use and Health
Below are common questions on basic information about NSDUH.
- How many counties were covered by the survey in recent years? How many substate regions have data available?
- I am new to NSDUH. Where do I start?
- Who is included in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) estimates? How are they chosen?
- How old is the NSDUH survey? How far back can trends be traced?
- What is the sample size for NSDUH estimates?
Concerns About Trend Comparability
Below are common questions about trend comparability.
- Why does SAMHSA caution against comparing 2021 and later estimates with estimates from prior years?
- Why does SAMHSA caution against comparing 2020 estimates with estimates from other years?
- When did NSDUH make the change from DSM-IV to DSM-5 for assessing mental health and substance use disorder?
- Are definitions for pain reliever use prior to 2015 comparable to later definitions?
- How far back can I compare recent estimates for Any Mental Illness (AMI) and Serious Mental Illness (SMI)?
- In 2020, why did the number of people with a substance use disorder (SUD) double?
- When substate regional estimates are produced, are the regions the same each time?
- Why can’t 2020 or 2021 data be pooled with data from other years? What about 2015 data?
- Is the NSDUH data from 2022 and later comparable with data from 2021?
- Why does SAMHSA caution against comparing many 2015 estimates with estimates from prior years?
Details About Microdata and Survey Questions
Below are common questions about microdata and survey questions.
- Where are statistics on mental health and substance use disorders?
- How do I access NSDUH data at the level of Hispanic ethnicity?
- Where are state-level indicators for those who served in the military?
- Why do there appear to be missing sequential datasets in the restricted data?
- Does NSDUH data differentiate between medical and recreational marijuana use?
- What age variables are available for use?
- What variable(s) should I use for race and ethnicity?
- How were the pain reliever questions asked if a respondent indicated that they used multiple types of pain relievers?
Finding Commonly Requested Data Products
Below are common questions about finding commonly requested data products.
- Where can I find a yearly report about treatment rates?
- Where can I locate reports and detailed tables for NSDUH data?
- Does restricted use data in DAS contain NSDUH data prior to 2002?
- Where can I find the older NSDUH reports?
- Where can I find more information about NSDUH reports?
- Where can I access state and regional estimates from NSDUH?
- Where can I get county-level estimates from NSDUH?
- Where can I find information about trends in opioid misuse?
- Where can I access NSDUH data by immigration status or place of birth?
- Where can I find information about marijuana use disorder by state?
- What years of data are available in the restricted data sets?
Help With Analysis
Below are common questions for help with analysis.
- What is the difference between NSDUH public- and restricted-use data?
- How do I access NSDUH data at the level of specific ethnicities?
- Where can I find complete information on NSDUH survey methodology and design?
- Why do the estimates I got from an online data tool not match the published estimates?
- How do I perform tests of statistical significance or calculate confidence intervals with NSDUH?
- How can I decide which estimates are unreliable due to small sample size or other factors?
- Why is it that sometimes the estimate for a group is suppressed while the estimate of a smaller subgroup is not suppressed?
- How can I read in public use National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) data? Which file formats are available?
- In the Data Analysis System (DAS), what is the difference between multi-year files and combined files?
NSDUH Topic Coverage
Below are common questions about NSDUH topic coverage.
- What questions were administered related to the Coronavirus 2019 pandemic? When were they added to NSDUH?
- Does NSDUH produce data on both illicit and prescribed fentanyl use?
- Does NSDUH collect information on carfentanyl, xylazine, or ayahuasca use?
- Does NSDUH collect data on people who have been denied treatment?
- Does NSDUH collect data about the utilization of mental health services by a specific program?
- Where can I find 2019-2020 state estimates and 2018-2020 substate estimates?
- Can I access the unimputed raw variables to explore non-responsiveness or missing data for particular questions?
Questions About Published Tables
Below are common questions about published tables.
- When NSDUH tables indicate that a certain number of people had a substance use disorder (SUD) in the past year, what does the "past year" include?
- How was the NSDUH weighted population created?
- Can state-level NSDUH estimates be used to rank states?
- Why are there differences in the 2021 estimates between the detailed tables released for 2021 and the detailed tables released for 2022?
State and Substate Data
Below are common questions about state and substate data.