SAMHSA report provides information on mental illness levels in each state and the District of Columbia | WPN World People News

A new report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) provides an overview of the nature and scope of mental illness within each state and the District of Columbia.

“This report shows that, while the percentages vary, people in every state experience mental illness,” said SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde. “The findings from this report will help state and local public health officials and others address the mental health needs of the people in their communities.”

The report focuses on people who experienced any mental illness and serious mental illness in the past year. The report uses measures of mental illness based on the fourth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the Mental Disorders (DSM-IV).

Nationally 42.5 million adult Americans (18.2 percent) experienced any mental illness in the past year. Among the states, levels ranged from 14.7 percent of adults in New Jersey to 22.3 percent of adults in Utah.

Serious mental illness, a mental disorder that causes substantial functional impairment (i.e., significantly interfering with or limiting a major life activity), affected 9.3 million adult Americans (4 percent) nationwide in the past year. Among the states the range of variation was less pronounced – from 3.1 percent of adults in New Jersey to 5.5 percent of adults in West Virginia

This report contains alphabetically listed tables providing the percentage figures for each of the states as well as color coded maps of the states divided into quintiles (groups of 10) according to their percentages in each category.

State Estimates of Adult Mental Illness for the 2011 and 2012 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health , is based on information obtained from approximately 92,400 persons age 18 and older who responded to SAMHSA’s 2011 or 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. All estimates are annual averages over the two-year period.

Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration