2023 National Survey on Drug Use & Health Data for LGBTQ+ Populations Released

The Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) has released a new report, “Behavioral Health of Adolescents Across Sexual Identities: Results from the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)”, a new infographic report highlighting data pertaining to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and any non heterosexual identifying youth.

Results from the 2023 NSDUH indicate that LGB+ youth are more likely than straight youth to experience mental health issues, including having a major depressive episode (MDE) and serious thoughts of suicide. Substance use among LGB+ youth was more nuanced; patterns in substance use by sexual identity sometimes differed by sex assigned at birth. Co-occurring MDE and substance use disorder (SUD), however, were more prevalent among LGB+ youth than among straight youth. Regardless of sexual identity or sex assigned at birth, most youths (more than 90%) had someone to whom they could turn if they wanted to talk about a serious problem.

Key highlights included:

  • Almost half of LGB+ female youth and nearly one in three female youths who were not sure about their sexual identity had an MDE in the past year, compared with one in five straight female youths who had an MDE in the past year.
  • Compared with straight male youth, LGB+ male youth were about five times as likely to have had serious thoughts of suicide, about four times as likely to have made a suicide plan, and about nine times as likely to have attempted suicide.
  • More than one in eight LGB+ male youths and one in seven LGB+ female youths had a drug use disorder (DUD). This percentage was about three times the rate for straight male youth and two times the rate for straight female youth, respectively.
  • LGB+ female youth and female youth who were not sure about their sexual identity were about two to four times as likely as straight female youth to have had both an MDE and an SUD in the past year. LGB+ male youth were about nine times as likely as straight male youth to have had a co-occurring MDE and an SUD.
  • Most youths (approximately nine in 10), regardless of sexual identity, reported they had someone to whom they could turn if they wanted to talk about a serious problem.

View the full report here.