Comparing and Evaluating Substance Use Treatment Utilization Estimates from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health and Other Data Sources

overlap, biases, strengths, and weaknesses of three sources of data on the receipt of specialty substance use treatment: the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS), and the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS). NSDUH is an annual survey of a representative sample of persons aged 12 or older at their places of residence. N-SSATS is an annual census of all known drug and alcohol abuse treatment facilities in the United States. TEDS is a compilation of data detailing the demographic and substance use characteristics of admissions to and discharges from substance use treatment. Methodological differences among these data sources that may contribute to differences in estimates are described. Specialty substance use treatment measures compared include numbers and characteristics of persons treated in a given year, single-day treatment counts, numbers of admissions in a given year, and estimates of the numbers of persons who needed substance use treatment but did not receive it.