Data Releases

The Substate Small Area Estimates interactive visualization is live (https://pdas.samhsa.gov/saes/substate) and is linked from the State Estimates page (https://pdas.samhsa.gov/saes/state).

Three annual reports for the 2017 NSDUH are available at: https://www.samhsa.gov/data/nsduh/reports-detailed-tables-2017-NSDUH

• 2017 Key Substance Use and Mental Health Indicators Report
• 2017 NSDUH Detailed Tables
• 2017 Methodological Summary and Definitions Report

SAMHSA has partnered with the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) to host restricted-use National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) data at their Federal Statistical Research Data Centers (RDCs). RDCs are secure facilities that provide access to a range of restricted-use microdata for statistical purposes. SAMHSA is the most recent federal partner to work with NCHS in making NSDUH restricted-use microdata available to approved researchers at RDC sites.

For more information please visit the FAQ here.

If you have additional questions, please email: rdca@cdc.gov.

The 2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) public-use file is available on the SAMHDA site. NSDUH is the primary source of statistical information on the use of tobacco, alcohol, prescription drugs, and illicit drugs by the U.S. civilian, noninstitutionalized population aged 12 or older. The survey also includes several series of questions that focus on mental health issues.

State estimates for 15 measures of substance use and mental disorders based on the combined 2015 and 2016 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health (NSDUHs) are provided. The NSDUH is an annual survey of the civilian, noninstutionalized population of the United States aged 12 years or older. State and regional estimates are based on a small area estimation (SAE) methodology in which state-level NSDUH data are combined with county and census block group/tract-level data from the state.

State reports from the 2016 NSDUH can be found here: https://www.samhsa.gov/data/nsduh/state-reports-NSDUH-2016

Users have the choice to include or exclude non-response codes using the RDAS system and send this information to the R statistical calculation server.

Previously, SAMHSA treated all missing, logically assigned, and non-response categories as missing, excluding these categories from the result set. Now, categories explicitly labeled as missing (e.g., "." in the NSDUH datasets) are excluded from the crosstab, and all other categories are included in the crosstab.

Using the recoding feature, you can define custom categories (i.e., survey response options) for variables to use in your crosstabs, thereby simplifying your results. For example, if a variable has response option categories of Yes, No, Don't Know, Refused, and Blank, you can recode the variable so Don't Know, Refused, and Blank are in one category, so your crosstab results would only display results for three categories (Yes, No, and Recoded None). The recoded category names are fully customizable.

For more information on using the recoding feature, please visit the PDAS/RDAS knowledge base by clicking the “Help” button in the upper-right of the application. Drill down to PDAS/RDAS > Run a Crosstab > Recode Variables.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month 2017, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA) provides several key resources and tools for behavioral health researchers.

SAMHDA offers public-use data files (PUFs) to assist researchers in this critical area of public health. Visit http://datafiles.samhsa.gov/ for more information.

Through SAMHDA’s recently-enhanced Public-use Data Analysis System (PDAS), users can perform online analyses to create crosstabs and perform logistic regression from a web browser, and can download their results.

Check out PDAS at http://pdas.samhsa.gov to explore the many available PUFs and try out the improved PDAS tool.

Also, check out these recent spotlights and short reports that use SAMHDA data to focus on behavioral health issues:

Bronchitis and Pneumonia Related to Major Depressive Episodes Among Adolescents

1 in 7 Adolescents with Diabetes Experienced a Major Depressive Episode in the Past Year

Past Year Major Depressive Episodes More Common among Adolescents with Asthma

1 in 5 Female Adolescents Who Were Overweight and Obese Had a Past Year Major Depressive Episode

The Public-use Data Analysis (PDAS) tool was updated in this release with enhancements to the usability and functionality.

Some of the PDAS enhancements include:

• New NSDUH Small Area Estimates data and visualization now available.
• Crosstab Shell: When variables are selected on the "Crosstab" tab, a shell of the crosstab displays before running it.
• New "Recent Analyses" tab that displays the most recent crosstab analyses the user has run. NOTE: Information will be retained based on a user's cookies; it is not cached on our servers.
• Can now save tables as a png file.
• Can now expand/collapse a whole category in the Variables pane.
• Can now replace variables instead of removing and re-adding.
• Can now swap row and column variables instead of removing and re-adding.
• Improved performance and load times.
• Improved look and feel for enhanced usability.

The tool was updated with enhancements to the usability and functionality, including the NSDUH Small Area Estimates data with mapping and visualization tools and an enhanced user interface. See the Release Notes for more information on the enhancements.