Impact of September 11, 2001 Events on Substance Abuse and Mental Health in the New York Area

3. Mental Health Problems

The NHSDA asks all persons aged 18 or older a series of questions relating to their mental health status and the extent to which mental health problems interfere with their ability to function. Because these questions were first asked in the 2001 NHSDA, no comparisons with 2000 are possible. The questionnaire is designed to identify persons with mental illness, and the questions focus on symptoms indicative of distress. Respondents are asked how often they experienced certain distress symptoms during the one month in the past 12 months when they were at their worst emotionally. The distress symptoms include feeling unusually tired, so nervous that nothing could calm them down, restless, or depressed and whether they felt hopeless, that they were worthless, or that everything was an effort. These questions also address the symptoms of a variety of mental disorders, but the questionnaire is not constructed to make specific diagnoses.

Because the mental health questions ask about problems within the past 12 months, detection of shifts in prevalence from one quarter to the next is difficult. There is substantial overlap in the reference periods reflected by estimates based on the respondents in the first three quarters and estimates from respondents in the fourth quarter.

In NYC, the NY CMSA, and the C-CMSA there were no statistically significant increases or decreases following September 11 in the proportion of adults classified with distress or a disorder. For adults aged 18 or older from NYC, the mean number of disorder symptoms among persons with disorders was lower in the fourth quarter of 2001 (1.9) compared with the first three quarters of the same year (2.6). No differences between the first three quarters and the fourth quarter of 2001 were found in reporting of number of symptoms associated with mental disorders or distress for adults from the NY CMSA or the C-CMSA.

Questions about use of mental health treatment services, which also reflect a past 12 month reference period, were included in both the 2000 and the 2001 NHSDAs for all persons aged 12 or older. For ages 12 and older in NYC, the NY CMSA, and the C-CMSA there were no changes in the reported use of mental health treatment when the period before October 1 was compared with the period after October 1 in 2001. Furthermore, there were no significant differences in trends in these areas when 2000 trends were compared with 2001 trends, and the trend in the NY CMSA was similar to the trend in the C-CMSA. These results held for both males and females.

Among youths in NYC, the proportion reporting past year treatment was slightly higher in the fourth quarter of 2001 than in the first three quarters of 2001 (16.1 percent vs. 13.8 percent). While this was not a statistically significant shift, it was a significantly different pattern than was observed in 2000, when the rate was 12.9 percent in the first three quarters and 4.9 percent in the fourth quarter. A similar result was observed in the NY CMSA.

This page was last updated on June 16, 2008.

SAMHSA, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, is the Federal Government's lead agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and mental health services in the United States.