Are There Racial Differences in the Experience of

Authors: Karen J Cusack Anouk L Grubaugh Eunsil Yim Rebecca G Knapp Cynthia S Robins B Christopher Frueh

Publish Date: 2007/03/08

Volume: 78, Issue: 2, Pages: 101-115

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Abstract

The current study examined racial differences in the reported frequency and distress associated with potentially harmful or traumatic experiences occurring within psychiatric settings One hundred and fortytwo 109 AfricanAmerican 32 Caucasian randomly selected adult consumers recruited from a community psychosocial day program completed a battery of selfreport measures to assess experiences in the psychiatric setting lifetime trauma exposure PTSD severity and were the subject of a chart review A subset of participants 20 also completed a qualitative interview exploring their perceptions of events occurring in psychiatric settings Few racial differences were noted in the reported frequency or distress associated with particular events in the psychiatric setting However we found differential patterns of association between adverse psychiatric events and lifetime trauma history and racial differences in diagnosis and medications prescribed by the mental health center These racial differences merit further attention to better understand their meaning and to improve mental health services provided to both AfricanAmericans and Caucasian publicsector psychiatric patients

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