Nearly one in five adult Americans experienced mental illness in 2013
December 12, 2014
A new report finds that 43.8 million adults (age 18 or older) experienced a diagnosable mental illness in 2013. The report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) also finds that 10 million adults experienced a serious mental illness and 15.7 million adults experienced a major depressive episode in 2013. These results are consistent with 2012 findings. The SAMHSA report indicates that 9.3 million American adults (3.9 percent) had serious thoughts of suicide in the past year – 2.7 million (1.1 percent) made suicide plans and 1.3 million (0.6 percent) attempted suicide. These levels were also comparable to last year’s findings.