In December, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the Department of Health and Human Services published the first Behavioral Health Barometer: United States, a publication that provides a snapshot of the state of behavioral health in the nation. Note also that SAMHSA also published a Behavioral Health Barometer for each state and for the District of Columbia. These reports present data on substance use and mental health indicators collected by SAMHSA (from its National Survey on Drug Use and Health and its National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services), from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (from the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey), and from the Monitoring the Future survey by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Also included are data from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on how Medicare enrollees use mental health and substance-abuse treatment services. SAMHSA intends to update these reports regularly to reflect the state of the science and incorporate new measures of interest.
The reports show trends among teens and adults regarding smoking status and the use of prescription painkillers, for example. They also include data on youth rates of the use of cigarettes, illicit drugs, marijuana, and nonmedical pain relievers; the age at first use; mental health and treatment, depression and depression treatment; and on adult rates of mental health and treatment, including thoughts of suicide, serious mental illness and treatment, alcohol dependence and abuse, illicit drug dependence and abuse, and heavy alcohol use, among other data.