Male Veterans with Co-Occurring Serious Mental Illness and a Substance Use Disorder 

The NSDUH Report:  Male Veterans with Co-Occurring Serious Mental Illness and a Substance Use Disorder

• HTML format

• PDF format

Highlights:

• SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) includes questions for adults aged 18 or older to assess serious mental illness (SMI) during the year prior to the survey interview. Individuals are classified as having SMI if at some time during the past year they had a mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder that met criteria specified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV), and that resulted in functional impairment that substantially interfered with or limited one or more major life activities.

• Individuals with either alcohol or drug dependence or abuse are said to have a substance use disorder.

• Individuals with both SMI and a substance use disorder are said to have co-occurring SMI and a substance use disorder. Other terms used include "comorbidity" and "dual diagnosis."

• In 2002 and 2003, an estimated 25.4 million male and 1.6 million female military veterans were living in the United States.

• SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that in 2002 and 2003, among males aged 18 and older an estimated 8% (2 million) of veterans and 14.6% (11.1 million) nonveterans were dependent on or abusing alcohol or illicit drugs.

• In 2002 and 2003, among males aged 18 and older an estimated 4.6% (1.2 million) of veterans and 7% (5.3 million) nonveterans had a serious mental illness.

• An estimated 340,000 male veterans had co-occurring serious mental illness (SMI) and a substance use disorder in 2002 and 2003. Although not statistically significant, within each age group of males the veterans had higher rates of comorbidity than nonveterans: aged 18 to 25 (6.4% veterans vs. 4.5% nonveterans); aged 26 to 54 (2.5% veterans vs. 2% nonveterans); and aged 55 or older (0.6% veterans vs. 0.3% nonveterans).

Reports on veterans

Reports on drugs

Reports on mental illness

Other topics

Other OAS publications and services

This Short Report, The NSDUH Report:  Male Veterans with Co-Occurring Serious Mental Illness and a Substance Use Disorder, is based on SAMHSA's  National Survey on Drug Use and Health, formerly called the National Household Survey on Drug Use (NHSDA)  conducted by the Office of Applied Studies (OAS) in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).  SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NHSDA/NSDUH) is the primary source of information on the prevalence, patterns, and consequences of drug and alcohol use and abuse in the general U.S. civilian non institutionalized population, age 12 and older.   Estimates are also available for drug use by state.