Addiction Medicine: Closing the Gap between Science and Practice

38.6

29.0

22.4

7.9

55.6

Alcohol Illicit Drugs

Other Than

Marijuana

Marijuana Prescription

Drugs

Multiple

Substances

P E R C E N T

Note: Admissions for addiction involving multiple substances

also are included in the other categories.

Source: CASA Columbia analysis of The Treatment Episode

Data Set(TEDS), 2009.

Figure 7.H

Admissions to Publicly-Funded Addiction

Treatment by Primary Substance

and Multiple Substances

Treatment Admissions .....................................................................................................

There are no national data on individuals who
receive addiction treatment in the U.S.; the
national data that are available represent
admissions to treatment facilities for addiction
involving alcohol or other drugs (excluding
nicotine)* for the 79.2 percent of addiction
treatment funding that comes from public
sources, although some of these facilities also
may receive private funding.†

• While some addiction treatment programs may

address nicotine, they do not report these services in
their treatment admission data.
† These analyses are based on data from the

Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS), a national
database of information on the demographic and
addiction characteristics of admissions to and
discharges from addiction treatment facilities,
routinely collected by each state substance abuse
agency and submitted to the Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
TEDS collects information about the beginning and
termination of treatment episodes; multiple episodes
of treatment for the same client are counted
separately. The 2009 TEDS data are based on
information on the demographic and substance use
characteristics of the approximately 1.5 million
annual admissions to alcohol and other drug
addiction treatment facilities (excluding
detoxification), among those ages 12 and older, that
report to individual state substance abuse agency data
systems. The TEDS attempts to include all
admissions to providers receiving public funding;
however, because each state or jurisdiction decides
the TEDS eligibility of a provider, there is no
independent check on the actual sources of funding.
Although SAMHSA requests submission of TEDS
data on all admissions to any publicly funded
treatment facility, reporting in some state agencies is
structured so that only patients treated with public
funds are included in the TEDS. The number of
patients in these facilities whose treatment is not
publicly funded is unknown. Because the scope of
facilities included in the TEDS is affected by
differences in state licensure, certification,
accreditation and disbursement of public funds, the
TEDS, while comprising a significant proportion of
all admissions to addiction treatment, does not
include all admissions. (See Appendix A for more
information about TEDS.) It is important to note that
CASA Columbia’s analyses of TEDS data exclude
detoxification services in calculating rates of

In 2009,‡ there were 1.5 million admissions to

publicly-funded addiction treatment facilities.§

More than half (55.6 percent) of the admissions

were for addiction involving multiple

substances. For 38.6 percent of the admissions,

alcohol was the primary substance of addiction,

compared with 29.0 percent for illicit drugs

other than marijuana, 22.4 percent for marijuana

and 7.9 percent for controlled prescription

drugs.^61 (Figure 7.H)

Admissions to publicly-funded addiction

treatment reflect greater attention to addiction

involving illicit drugs other than marijuana and

multiple substances relative to the prevalence of

addiction involving these substances in the

population.** 62

admissions to addiction treatment; therefore, data

reported in this report may differ from those

published in TEDS reports.

‡ The most recent available data.

§ Included in the TEDS database.

** Of those needing addiction treatment, 80.7 percent

involve alcohol, 18.9 percent involve marijuana, 10.3

percent involve controlled prescription drugs and 7.0

percent involve illicit drugs other than marijuana;

14.6 percent involve multiple substances.

(Categories are not mutually exclusive.)