Our request
We ask SAMHSA to publish ketamine-specific NSDUH tables, where sample size, survey design, and disclosure protections permit. Tables should include relevant measures of suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts as separate outcomes rather than collapsing them.
Please document the wording and availability of ketamine questions in each survey year and maintain stable items across years where feasible. If an item or definition changes, please provide a cross-year comparability note.
Where publishable, provide clearly specified cross-tabulations and methodological information needed to interpret them, including weighted estimates, uncertainty, sample sizes or effective sample sizes, and relevant limitations. Any analysis adjusting for depression should state its analytic design and should not be framed as establishing causation.
Why it matters
NSDUH microdata offers a way to study nonmedical ketamine use and suicidal thoughts, plans, or attempts while accounting for depression.
Stable measures and transparent tables could support more reproducible analysis over time. Survey associations, even when adjusted, do not by themselves establish that one factor caused another.
What good reporting looks like
- Protect respondent privacy and suppress estimates that do not meet agency reliability standards.
- Clearly distinguish weighted population estimates from raw respondent counts.
- Explain survey wording, mode, design, missing data, and any changes in item availability.