2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Serious Psychological Distress Report

摘要

For the 2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), serious psychological distress (SPD) was measured using the K6 screening instrument for nonspecific psychological distress (Furukawa, Kessler, Slade, & Andrews, 2003; Kessler et al., 2003). In previous NSDUH reports, the K6 scale was used to measure serious mental illness (SMI), but this was changed in 2004, and the reasons for this change are discussed in this report. In the 2003 survey, the SMI module consisted of a broad array of mental health questions that preceded the K6 items. In the 2004 survey, the sample was split evenly between the 'long-form' module used in the 2003 survey and a 'short-form' module consisting only of the K6 items. Results from the 2004 survey showed that large differences in SPD prevalence rates occurred between the two modules, especially in the 18 to 25 age group. An attempt was made to adjust short-form estimates to match those from the long form, and these adjustments were used in State-level, but not national, estimates.