SAMHSA Announces State Estimates of Adult Mental Illness

Hawaii and South Dakota have the lowest rate of serious mental illness, while Rhode Island has the highest. The national rate of serious mental illness is 4.6 percent. That’s according to findings from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) 2008 and 2009 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), released yesterday.

The NSDUH Report presented state-level estimates of serious mental illness based on data collected from 92,233 adults aged 18 or older and estimates of any mental illness based on data from 68,936 adults aged 18 or older. SAMHSA defines mental illness based on diagnostic criteria in DSM-IV. Among adults with a disorder, those whose disorder caused substantial functional impairment are defined as having serious mental illness and the most urgent need for treatment. “Information on the prevalence of mental illness is critically needed to help guide the provision of effective treatment and prevention programs to restore lives and to reduce economic and societal costs,” said SAMHSA.

The NSDUH report is available at www.samhsa.gov/newsroom/advisories/1110055020.aspx.

To read about recent findings from the NSDUH survey on substance abuse trends, see Psychiatric News at http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/44/20/4.1.full.
 

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