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Nearly a quarter of American adults experienced mental illness in 2023. We know this because of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. That survey's future is now uncertain because of President Trump's cuts to the federal workforce, as NPR's Rhitu Chatterjee reports.
RHITU CHATTERJEE, BYLINE: The National Survey on Drug Use and Health, or NSDUH as it's often called, is an annual survey that's been running for decades.
JENNIFER HOENIG: NSDUH is the largest survey of mental health and substance use in our country. We survey about 70,000 people 12 and older each year.
CHATTERJEE: Jennifer Hoenig used to lead the team of scientists in charge of the survey at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration.
HOENIG: It is really the first line for people to understand the prevalence of substance use, substance use disorders, and mental health outcomes, treatment, recovery - things like that in the country.
CHATTERJEE: Each year, Hoenig and her team analyze the survey data and put out detailed reports. But last month, she and her entire 16-person team lost their jobs in the layoffs orchestrated by Elon Musk's DOGE effort. Hoenig says the data her team put out is used by federal and state lawmakers, researchers and local health departments.
HOENIG: It allows people to really figure out who are the people in the country that need help? Who are these people? Where do they live?
CHATTERJEE: Pediatricians use the data, says Dr. Scott Hadland. He heads adolescent medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.
SCOTT HADLAND: When we use it clinically, it's often in a way that is helping pediatricians like me and my colleagues across the country understand what's going on with teenagers.
CHATTERJEE: Like how common opioid addiction is among teens.
HADLAND: We know from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health that about 1 in 80 teenagers struggles with opioid addiction. That's a lot higher than many pediatricians would guess, and we only know that because of this survey.
CHATTERJEE: Researchers like Katherine Keyes at Columbia University have used the NSDUH data for years to understand trends and substance use, and she says the data shows the success of past efforts to curb the use of substances in young people.
KATHERINE KEYES: You look at factors like cigarette and tobacco use among young people, which is at extraordinary lows. Binge drinking and alcohol use has been declining among young people, but there's a long way to go.
CHATTERJEE: She says that's why the kind of data that NSDUH collects is so important.
KEYES: Because if some of these trends reverse, we need to know immediately.
CHATTERJEE: A spokesperson from the Federal Health Department says that agency staff is working with a contractor to continue conducting the 2025 survey. And the 2024 annual report will be out later this summer. But Hoenig says it's unclear how that will happen without her team.
HOENIG: If that information is not being disseminated out into the public, we will lose lives. We will lose lives to overdose. We will lose lives to suicide. But these are entirely preventable.
CHATTERJEE: Rhitu Chatterjee, NPR News.
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