Treatment Episode Data Set: Discharges (TEDS-D)
Client-Level Substance Use Data: Discharges

Several limitations to the data exist:

• The TEDS system is admission-based; therefore, TEDS admissions and discharges do not represent individuals. For example, an individual admitted to and discharged from treatment twice within a calendar year would be counted as two admissions and two discharges.
• The data provide information on treatment in specific service types, derived from linked pairs of admission/discharge records. The data do not necessarily represent complete treatment episodes, which may include stays in multiple types of service and would require analysis of series of linked pairs of records.
• The primary, secondary, and tertiary substances of misuse reported to TEDS are those substances that led to the treatment episode. This reporting does not necessarily account for all drugs used at the time of admission.
• The way an admission is defined may vary from state to state, such that the absolute number of admissions is not a valid measure for comparing states.
• States continually review the quality of their data processing. As states identify systematic errors, historical TEDS data files may be revised. While this process improves the data set over time, reported historical statistics may change slightly from year to year.
• States vary in the extent to which coercion plays a role in referral to treatment. This variation derives from criminal justice practices and differing concentrations of substance-using subpopulations.
• Public funding constraints may direct states to selectively target special populations, for example, pregnant women or adolescents.
• Some states have no opioid treatment programs (OTPs) that provide medication-assisted therapy using methadone, buprenorphine, or naltrexone.

TEDS provides demographic, clinical, and substance use characteristics of admissions to alcohol or drug treatment in facilities that report to state administrative data systems. The unit of analysis is treatment admissions to state-licensed or certified substance use treatment centers that receive federal public funding.

TEDS has two parts: a minimum data set and a supplemental data set. All states provide a minimum data set, and some states provide a supplemental data set. The minimum data set consists of 19 items that include:

• Demographic information
• Primary, secondary, and tertiary substances used by the subject and their route of administration; frequency of substance use; and age at first use
• Source of referral to treatment
• Number of prior treatment episodes
• Service type, including planned use of OTPs providing medication-assisted therapy using methadone, buprenorphine, or naltrexone

For methodological information for a particular year or date range, please check the codebook for a specific data set from the sidebar to the right.