Drug use and mental health problems in the Unitied States for 2010

By Philip Copitch, Ph.D.

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Drug use and mental health problems

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration recently released the statistics for drug use and mental health problems in the Unitied States for 2010. The numbers are staggering.

Because statistics can be very boring, I am going to limit the actual numbers in this article. But, if you want to read the whole report you can get it for free from: 

http://www.samhsa.gov/data/NSDUH/2k10MH_Findings/2k10MHResults.pdf

First a small quiz…

1. What percentage of adults in America had a severe mental illness in 2010?

1%

5%

10%

25%

The answer 5 %. That equals over 11 million adults.

2. Who are more likely to have a serious mental illness, men or women?

Answer: Women are about twice as likely to have a serious mental illness.

3. True or false: In 2010, 31.3 million adults (13.7 percent of the population 18 years or older) received mental health services during the past 12 months.

Answer: True

Interesting graph:

The 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), is an annual survey of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States aged 12 years old or older.

Highlights of the report

In 2010, there were an estimated 45.9 million adults aged 18 or older in the United States with any mental illness (AMI) in the past year. This represents 20.0 percent of all adults in this country. Among adults aged 18 or older in 2010, the percentage having serious mental illness (SMI) in the past year was 5.0 percent (11.4 million adults). 

• Women aged 18 or older were more likely than men aged 18 or older to have past year AMI (23.0 vs. 16.8 percent) and SMI (6.5 vs. 3.4 percent). 
• In 2010, an estimated 8.7 million adults (3.8 percent) aged 18 or older had serious thoughts of suicide in the past year. Among adults aged 18 or older, 2.5 million (1.1 percent) made suicide plans in the past year, and 1.1 million (0.5 percent) attempted suicide in the past year. 
• Among the 45.9 million adults aged 18 or older with AMI in the past year, 20.0 percent (9.2 million adults) met criteria for substance dependence or abuse in that period compared with 6.1 percent (11.2 million adults) among those who did not have mental illness in the past year. Among the 11.4 million adults aged 18 or older with SMI in the past year, 25.2 percent also had past year substance dependence or abuse compared with 6.1 percent of adults who did not have mental illness. 
• In 2010, 31.3 million adults (13.7 percent of the population 18 years or older) received mental health services during the past 12 months. 
• Among the 45.9 million adults aged 18 or older with AMI in 2010, 17.9 million (39.2 percent) received mental health services in the past year. Among the 11.4 million adults aged 18 or older with SMI in 2010, 6.9 million (60.8 percent) received mental health services in the past year. 
• Among the 2.9 million adults aged 18 or older in 2010 with both SMI and substance dependence or abuse in the past year, 64.0 percent received substance use treatment at a specialty facility or mental health treatment in that period. Included in the 64.0 percent are 14.5 percent who received both mental health treatment and specialty substance use treatment, 45.0 percent who received mental health treatment only, and 4.3 percent who received specialty substance use treatment only. 
• In 2010, there were 1.9 million youths (8.0 percent of the population aged 12 to 17) who had major depressive episode (MDE) during the past year. Among youths aged 12 to 17 in 2010 who had past year MDE, 37.2 percent used illicit drugs in the past year compared with 17.8 percent among youths who did not have past year MDE. 
• In 2010, 2.9 million youths aged 12 to 17 (12.2 percent) received treatment or counseling for problems with emotions or behavior in a specialty mental health setting (inpatient or outpatient care). The most common reason for receiving specialty mental health services among youths was feeling depressed (47.6 percent). 

http://www.samhsa.gov/data/NSDUH/2k10MH_Findings/2k10MHResults.pdf

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Results from the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Mental Health Findings, NSDUH Series H-42, HHS Publication No. (SMA) 11-4667. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2012.

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Living to 100: New Research

So you want to live to 100?

Those of you who have been reading my blog for some time know that I do not put much stock into vitamin pills and new age "live forever diets." I read this study and thought you needed to know about it.


Researches reported in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society showed how important good genes are to living to 100.

When they looked at extremely old folks (95 and older) and compared them to old folks that died before 95, they found that both groups of people had lots of bad habits. Many of them smoked and lots were overweight. Which brings us back to the importance of good genes over over snake oil sellers with new live forever diets.

I know some of you will still be skeptical: Read the report!