Clinician attributions associated with the diagnosis of schizophrenia in African American and non-African American patients

The authors examined the schizophrenia diagnosis in 292 psychiatric inpatie nts in a largely African American community. Clinicians completed a free-re sponse questionnaire that described their diagnostic decisions. Psychotic s ymptoms such as hallucinations, which were attributed to African American a nd non-African American patients at different rates, did not necessarily co rrespond to differences in diagnostic rates. Rather, symptoms not different ially attributed between groups often corresponded with higher rates of sch izophrenia for African American patients. Attributions of negative symptoms showed the largest differences between African American and non-African Am erican patients in rates of schizophrenia diagnosis; thought disorder equal ized rates of the diagnosis between the 2 groups of patients. Logistic regr ession analyses suggested that different aggregate decision models were app lied to patients of differing race.