Examining NSDUH's Assessment of Fentanyl Use: A Comparison of Trends in Fentanyl Use and Fentanyl Overdose Deaths From 2015 to 2020

Per NSDUH data, the prevalence of fentanyl misuse did not significantly increase in tandem with synthetic opioid overdose deaths from 2015 to 2020. Scrutiny of NSDUH's approach to assessing fentanyl misuse casts doubt on the utility of NSDUH fentanyl data collection. We acknowledge recent changes to the survey and recommend two further changes to optimize a vital source of data on behaviors related to the opioid overdose crisis.