Does racial bias influence psychiatric diagnoses assigned at first hospitalization

摘要: Background: Research on racial bias in psychiatric diagnosis has largely been limited to studies of admission diagnoses assigned to chronically ill patients. This study tests whether racial influences diagnoses patients at discharge from their first psychiatric hospitalization. Methods: In a county-wide sample of patients with psychosis, hospital were compared with research formulated using structured interviews and strict adherence DSM-III-R. Symptom patterns also examined. Results: Racial differences observed the distribution both hospital and research diagnoses. Using as gold standard, sensitivities and specificities hospital diagnoses similar by race (for blacks sensitivity and specificity schizophrenia was 0.33 0.91, for whites, 0.43 0.89). The only suggestion possible that more discharged without definitive diagnosis (38.7% vs. 26.3% whites, χ2 = 5.80, df 1, p 0.02). Conclusions: We did not observe expected assignment diagnoses of affective disorders. While there was evidence that clinicians had more difficulty diagnosing black patients, low concordance between and research black white patients demonstrates need better understand clinical diagnostic process all psychotic disorders at their first