Trends & Statistics National Institute on Drug Abuse NIDA

This report did not provide comparable information on frequency of prescription drug misuse. Because prescription drug misuse is the second most common form of illicit drug use in the United States, prescription drug misuse among older adults is an issue to examine with NSDUH prescription drug questions that were added in 2015, although this analysis will require pooled years of data. The DAWN results are evidence that prescription drug misuse does result in high numbers of older adults visiting the ED. Find key substance use and mental health indicators by sexual identity – gay/lesbian, bisexual, and straight– and gender among adults aged 18 or… 71 Estimated numbers and percentages of people in Figure 70 who made an effort or did not make an effort to get substance use treatment do not sum to the total number of people who needed substance use treatment, did not receive specialty treatment in the past year, and perceived a need for treatment due to rounding. 67 Substance use treatment at a specialty facility refers to substance use treatment at a hospital (only as an inpatient), a drug or alcohol rehabilitation facility (as an inpatient or outpatient), or a mental health center.

• The percentage of people in 2019 who were past year heroin users was higher than the percentages in most years from 2002 to 2008, but it was similar to the percentages in 2009 to 2018.
• On top of a number of physical side effects, drug addictions have great social and economic consequences.
• Respondents who reported that they ever had a problem with their alcohol or other drug use were asked whether they considered themselves (at the time they were interviewed) to be in recovery or to have recovered from their alcohol or other drug use problem.
• In 2019, perceptions of great risk of harm from substance use varied by substance and age.
• Among people aged 12 to 20, the percentage who were past month alcohol users in 2019 was lower than the percentages in 2002 through 2015, but it was similar to the percentages in 2016 through 2018 (2019 DT 7.16).

The percentage of young adults in 2019 who were past year cocaine users was lower than the percentages in 2002 to 2007 and was higher than the percentages in 2010 to 2014, but it was similar to the percentages in 2008 and 2009 and in most years from 2015 to 2018. Among adults aged 26 or older, the percentage who were past year marijuana users increased from 7.0 percent (or 12.6 million people) in 2002 to 15.2 percent (or 33.0 million people) in 2019 (Figure 12 and 2019 DT 7.14). Among young adults aged 18 to 25, the percentage who were past year marijuana users increased from 29.8 percent (or 9.2 million people) in 2002 to 35.4 percent (or 12.0 million people) in 2019 (Figure 12 and 2019 DT 7.11).

Illicit Drug Use in the Past Year

Among people aged 12 or older in 2019, 3.7 percent (or 10.1 million people) misused opioids in the past year (Figures 24 and 25). The vast majority of people who misused opioids in the past year misused prescription pain relievers (Figure 24). Specifically, 9.7 million people aged 12 or older misused prescription pain relievers in the past year compared with 745,000 people who used heroin. In 2019, the majority of the 9.3 million misusers of prescription pain relievers had misused only prescription pain relievers in the past year, but they had not used heroin.

Among young adults aged 18 to 25 in 2019, 7.5 percent (or 2.5 million people) had an illicit drug use disorder in the past year (Figure 38 and 2019 DT 7.49). The percentages of young adults with a past year illicit drug use disorder remained stable between 2015 and 2019. Among adults aged 26 or older in 2019, 96,000 people initiated methamphetamine use in the past year (Figure 31 and 2019 DT 7.44), or an average of about 260 new methamphetamine users aged 26 or older each day (Table A.3A). The number of past year initiates of methamphetamine use remained stable among this population between 2015 and 2019.

Treatment for Depression among Adults

Among the 45.9 million current cigarette smokers aged 12 or older in 2019 (see the section on Cigarette Use), 26.8 million people were daily cigarette smokers (Figure 4), and 10.8 million people smoked 16 or more cigarettes per day (i.e., approximately one pack or more per day). Among current cigarette smokers, the percentage who smoked cigarettes daily declined from 63.4 percent in 2002 (or 38.7 million people) to 58.4 percent (or 26.8 million people) in 2019 (2019 DT 7.26). The percentage of current cigarette smokers in 2019 who were daily cigarette smokers (58.4 percent) was lower in most years than the percentages in 2002 to 2012, but it was similar to the percentages in 2013 to 2018. The percentage of people in 2019 who were past month daily cigarette smokers and smoked one or more packs of cigarettes per day (40.5 percent) was lower than the percentages in 2002 to 2011, but it was similar to the percentages in 2012 to 2018 (Figure 5).

• Among young adults aged 18 to 25, the number of past year initiates of marijuana use increased from 733,000 in 2002 to 1.2 million in 2019 (Figure 28 and 2019 DT 7.43).
• Among adults aged 26 to 49, the percentage who made a suicide plan in the past year increased from 1.1 percent (or 1.1 million people) in 2008 to 1.5 percent (or 1.5 million people) in 2019 (Figure 62 and 2019 DT 10.39).
• Among people aged 12 or older, the percentage who were past month heavy alcohol users declined from 6.5 percent (or 17.3 million people) in 2015 to 5.8 percent (or 16.0 million people) in 2019 (Figure 9 and 2019 DT 7.3).
• The misuse of prescription medications is another prevalent issue among seniors since they often have access to different medicines prescribed by multiple doctors.

Among young adults aged 18 to 25 in 2019 with past year SMI, receipt of mental health services in the past year increased from 45.9 percent (or 567,000 people) in 2008 to 56.4 percent (or 1.6 million people) in 2019 (Figure 76 and 2019 DT 10.11). This percentage in 2019 was higher than the percentage in 2008, but it was similar to the percentages in most years from 2009 to 2018. Among the 16.3 million adults aged 50 or older in 2019 with past year AMI (2019 DT 10.1), 47.2 percent (or 7.7 million people) received mental health services in the past year (Figure 75 and 2019 DT 10.9). Among adults aged 26 to 49 with past year AMI, receipt of mental health services in the past year increased from 41.4 percent (or 8.6 million people) in 2008 to 45.4 percent (or 11.5 million people) in 2019 (Figure 75 and 2019 DT 10.9).

State Level Estimates

The percentage of adults with SUDs related to their nonmedical use of prescription pain relievers has remained steady since 2006. In 2014, smaller numbers of adults had past year SUDs related to their use of cocaine (about 900,000; 0.4 percent) or heroin (about 600,000; 0.2 percent). The percentage of adults with a cocaine use disorder remained steady from 2009 to 2014; however, the 2014 percentage was lower than the percentages in 2002 to 2008. Although the percentage of adults with a heroin use disorder has ranged from 0.1 percent to 0.2 percent https://ecosoberhouse.com/ of adults since 2002, the 2014 percentage was statistically higher than the percentages in 2002 to 2010. The population estimates and percentages of adults with SUDs related to other substances are shown in Tables S1 and S2. Respondents in 2019 were asked questions about initiation of misuse only for the specific prescription drugs they misused in the past 12 months, including their age when they first misused a drug and (if the first misuse occurred within a year of the current age) the year and month of first misuse for that drug.

Thus, past year initiates of the use of substances other than prescription psychotherapeutic drugs reported their first use within 12 months of the interview date. Among the 5.4 million adults aged 50 or older in 2019 who had a past year MDE, 76.5 percent (or 4.1 million people) received treatment for depression in the past year (Figure 72 and 2019 DT 10.32 and 10.34). Among the 8.9 million adults aged 26 to 49 in 2019 who had a past year substance abuse in older adults MDE, 68.9 percent (or 6.1 million people) received treatment for depression in the past year (Figure 72 and 2019 DT 10.32 and 10.34). Among the 19.4 million adults aged 18 or older in 2019 who had a past year MDE, 66.3 percent (or 12.8 million people) received treatment for depression in the past year (Figure 72 and 2019 DT 10.32 and 10.34). This percentage in 2019 was similar to the percentage in each year from 2009 through 2018.