Mp. Delbello et al., Effects of race on psychiatric diagnosis of hospitalized adolescents: A retrospective chart review, J CH AD PSY, 11(1), 2001, pp. 95-103
Citations number
25
Categorie Soggetti
Pediatrics
Journal title
JOURNAL OF CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
Background: Several studies have reported that patient ethnicity influences
psychiatric diagnosis, although this has only been examined in adolescents
in two prior studies. One study was based on an outpatient sample and the
other was a retrospective study involving a relatively small sample of inpa
tients. We hypothesized that, as reported in adults, African American adole
scents would be diagnosed with schizophrenic spectrum disorders more freque
ntly than Caucasians, and Caucasians correspondingly would receive more aff
ective disorders diagnoses.
Methods: We retrospectively examined the charts of all adolescents (ages 12
-18 years) admitted to the Adolescent Psychiatry Unit at Cincinnati Childre
n's Hospital Medical Center (n = 1,001) between July 1995 and June 1998 for
demographic information and discharge diagnoses. We used insurance status
as a proxy for socioeconomic status.
Results: African American males were more commonly diagnosed with schizophr
enic spectrum disorders than were African American women, Caucasian women,
and Caucasian men. There were significantly more African Americans diagnose
d with conduct disorder than Caucasians. In contrast, Caucasians were diagn
osed with alcohol use disorders and major depression more often.
Conclusions: Patient race and sex may influence clinical psychiatric diagno
ses of hospitalized adolescents. Further investigations using structured in
terviews are necessary to determine whether the disparity in clinical diagn
osis is secondary to actual gender and racial differences in the rates of i
llnesses in hospitalized adolescents or due to other factors that may contr
ibute to diagnostic practices.