About Behavioral Health

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Key points

  • Behavioral health is a key component of overall health.
  • Behavioral health refers to the topics of mental distress, mental health conditions, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and substance use.
  • Promoting positive behavioral health includes addressing factors at multiple levels, including social determinants of health—supporting the environments where we live, work, learn, and play.
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Overview

Behavioral health1 refers to a state of mental, emotional, and social well-being or behaviors and actions that affect wellness. Behavioral health is a key component of overall health. The term is also used to describe the support systems that promote well-being, prevent mental distress, and provide access to treatments and services for mental health conditions.

Behavioral health is an umbrella term that refers to the following topics:

Improving behavioral outcomes means addressing factors at multiple levels, including social determinants of health—supporting the environments where we live, work, learn, and play.

Mental health and suicide

Suicide is one of the leading cause of death in the United States. In 2024, there were over 48,000 deaths by suicide.2

Keep Reading Suicidal Thoughts & Behavior

About 49% of all people who die by suicide with known circumstances have a history of a diagnosed mental health condition.3 However, suicide is not caused by any single factor.

  • While not all people who die by suicide were known to have a mental health condition, there are many shared risk factors that can lead to both poor mental health and risk for suicide.
  • These factors include challenges in relationships, substance use, physical health, and financial, legal, housing, or work stress.4
  • Similar to risk factors, there is also a range of factors at individual, relationship, community, and societal levels that can protect people from suicide.4

Suicide is preventable. Working holistically to reduce these risk factors, as well as promote well-being and prevent mental distress, can reduce deaths by suicide.

Risk and protective factors for suicide

Two people hugging.
Suicide is preventable. Working holistically to reduce these risk factors, as well as promote well-being and prevent mental distress, can reduce deaths by suicide.

Related conditions

Mental health and substance use

People may sometimes turn to drugs, alcohol, and other substances to help them cope with stress, trauma, or mental distress. Substance use may lead to developing a substance use disorder (SUD)5, including opioid use disorder, which can result in serious health outcomes such as drug overdose.6

Mental health conditions and SUDs often co-occur, meaning a person can have both a mental health condition and an SUD at the same time.

  • People with a mental health condition are more likely to use substances or have an SUD than those without a mental health condition.7
  • Additionally, people who use substances or have an SUD can develop other mental health conditions.7
  • In 2024, approximately 21.2 million adults in the United States had both a mental health condition and an SUD.8
  • Implementing evidence-based screening for substance use and mental health disorders during potential intervention opportunities and expanding efforts to integrate care could improve mental health and reduce overdoses.9

Although drug overdose deaths have increased over the last two decades, recent data indicate we are turning the tide on overdoses in part due to public health investments such as CDC's Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) program.10 However, overdose remains the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-44, highlighting the importance of sustained efforts to ensure this progress continues.10

Keep Reading Substance Use & Mental Health

Resources

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National Center for Injury Prevention and Control
About This Page
Published: October 15, 2024
Updated: August 20, 2026

This page was last updated on this date. Updates may include minor edits, image changes, or other modifications to page content.

Reviewed: August 20, 2026

The information on this page was last reviewed by subject matter experts to ensure accuracy.

  1. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (2023). Roadmap to behavioral health: Guide to mental health and substance use disorder services. Retrieved on April 10, 2024 from https://www.cms.gov/About-CMS/Agency-Information/OMH/Downloads/Roadmap-to-Behavioral-Health-508-Updated-2018.pdf; Evans, A. & Bufka, L. (2020). The critical need for a population health approach: Addressing the nation's behavioral health during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Preventing Chronic Disease, 17, E79. Retrieved April 10, 2024 from http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd17.200261.
  2. CDC. (2026). Suicide Data and Statistics. Retrieved August 20, 2026 from https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/data/index.html
  3. Forsberg K, Sheats KJ, Blair JM, et al. (2025). Surveillance for Violent Deaths — National Violent Death Reporting System, 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, 2022. MMWR Surveill Summ 74(No. SS-5):1–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.ss7405a1.
  4. CDC. (2024). Risk and Protective Factors for Suicide. Retrieved on September 20, 2024, from https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/risk-factors/index.html
  5. NIDA. (2020). Drug Misuse and Addiction. Retrieved on May 22, 2025, from https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addiction/drug-misuse-addiction
  6. CDC. (2025). SUDORS Dashboard: Fatal Drug Overdose Data – Accessible Version. Retrieved on May 22, 2025, from https://www.cdc.gov/overdose-prevention/data-research/facts-stats/sudors-dashboard-fatal-overdose-data-accessible.html
  7. NIMH. (2024). Substance Use and Co-Occurring Mental Disorders. Retrieved on May 22, 2025 from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/substance-use-and-mental-health
  8. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2025). Key substance use and mental health indicators in the United States: Results from the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (HHS Publication No. PEP25-07-007, NSDUH Series H-60). Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. https://www.samhsa.gov/data/data-we-collect/nsduh-national-survey drug-use-and-health/national-releases
  9. Dinwiddie, A., et al. (2024).Reported Non–Substance-Related Mental Health Disorders Among Persons Who Died of Drug Overdose — United States, 2022. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 73(34), 747-753.https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/wr/mm7334a3.htm
  10. CDC. (2025, May 14). Statement from CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control on Provisional 2024 Overdose Death Data [Press release]. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2025/2025-statement-from-cdcs-national-center-for-injury-prevention-and-control-on-provisional-2024.html