Appendix 5: NDATUS History

In 1976, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) began a census of publicly funded treatment facilities that specialize in abuse of drugs. In 1979, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) joined NIDA is sponsoring NDATUS, and the scope expanded to include specialty treatment for alcohol abuse. The establishment of the Federal Block Grant in 1981 was associated with reduced interest in the NDATUS survey.

Interest increased again with the passage of the Comprehensive Alcohol Abuse, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Amendments of 1988 [P.L. 100-690, Title II, Chapter 2, Section 2052]. (5) In 1992, as part of the reorganization of the Alcohol, Drug, and Mental Health Administration, NDATUS was shifted to SAMHSA. However, the scope of the 1992 survey did not change except for the addition of a representative, sample survey of census non-responders.

The impetus for making comparisons among NDATUS surveys in this report is the growing concern about rapidly rising health care and welfare costs, and the associated policy debate about national health care and welfare reforms. In this new policy environment, cost containment is essential; and it is defined largely in terms of slowing down growth rates in services utilization and in terms of using case management to tradeoff treatment needs and costs.

Longitudinal NDATUS data help to understand these growth rates and tradeoffs. For example, tracking the age profile of clients in treatment reveals substance abuse characteristics and utilization by age cohorts. When combined with current population-based incidence and prevalence data, age tracking helps to predict future requirements for substance abuse treatment. It also helps to predict health care and welfare costs, since age and substance abuse are correlated with health care and welfare needs, and to make tradeoffs between spending more now for substance abuse treatment in order to reduce future health care and welfare costs.

NDATUS Reports

In collaboration with the States, SAMHSA is redesigning NDATUS reports. This Advance Report replaces the "Highlights", a document published by the National Institute On Drug Abuse (NIDA) for the 1987, 1989, 1990, and 1991 surveys. Instead of summarizing all NDATUS data in the "Highlights" and again in a Main Findings reports, this NDATUS Advance Report presents information based upon three criteria. First, we focus on NDATUS questions that elicited the highest response rates. Second, we focus on data which are the most reliably reported, based upon our experience with survey administration. Third, we limit attention to the subset of NDATUS data for which the NDATUS survey has an advantage compared to the reporting of client records by the Client Data System.

A Main Findings report is forthcoming. Unlike previous editions, it will contain both NDATUS and CDS data, and it will report NDATUS and CDS data from both 1992 and 1993. Because this report has a much broader purview compared to previous NDATUS-only reports, fewer cross-tabulations among NDATUS variables may be reported. However, it will present basic tabulations of all NDATUS and CDS data plus key NDATUS-to-NDATUS and NDATUS-to-CDS cross tabulations. In addition, a public-use NDATUS data file will be made available, soon after the publication of this Advance Report, making it possible for anyone to tailor analysis as needed.

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