About SAMHDA
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA) is an initiative of the Office of Applied Studies (OAS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
SAMHDA provides free, ready access to comprehensive research data in a variety of formats and promotes the sharing of these data among researchers, academics, policymakers, service providers, and others. The goal is to increase the use of the data to most accurately understand and assess substance abuse and mental health problems and the impact of related treatment systems. Our data include the U.S. general and special populations, annual series, and designs that produce nationally representative estimates. Some of the data acquired and archived under SAMHDA have never before been publicly distributed.
The archive is intended to ensure that data are in user friendly format. All data may be downloaded from our Web site and most studies are available for use with our online data analysis system. This system allows users to conduct analyses ranging from crosstabulation to regression without downloading data or relying on other software. Another feature, Quick Tables, provides the ability to select variables from drop down menus to produce cross-tabulations and graphs that may be customized and cut and pasted into documents. Online tutorials and user guides (SAMHDA FAQs, online analysis help resources) provide help, and SAMHDA staff offer user support through email and a toll-free helpline. SAMHDA is also a leader in conducting disclosure analyses and applying best practices to providing public-use data with the highest quality disclosure protection.
Each collection includes survey instruments (when provided), a bibliography of related literature, and related Web site links. An important feature of the project is a variable-level search, which includes all metadata (i.e., question text, variable and value labels) and allows multi-term searching.
