“The statistics indicate that minority-race inpatients are more likely than white inpatients to be admitted and under care in state hospitals…. Questions arise as to why minority-race patients have not been able to benefit from community-based services as much as have white patients, and how institutional racism has contributed to this phenomenon.”

“Several studies have provided support for the contention that racial bias exists in the assessment and diagnosis of mental illness. Jenkins-Hall and Sacco (1991) found that therapists had more negative evaluations of depressed than nondepressed clients, and the combination of being black and depressed led to the most negative evaluation. Jones (1982) found that white therapists generally rated their black clients as more psychologically impaired than did black therapists. Studies indicate that white professionals may misconstrue uncooperative behavior among Hispanics as evidence of psychosis (Rendon 1974; Smith Kline Cooperation, 1978) and that professionals’ lack of knowledge of Puerto Rican culture is likely to lead to misdiagnosis (Teichner, Cadden, and Berry, 1981). When diagnosed with psychotic or affective disorders, minority-race clients are more likely to be labeled as having a chronic syndrome than an acute episode (Sata, 1990).”

“In 1980, schizophrenia as a diagnosis was more prominent among black and Hispanic admissions than among white admissions to state mental hospitals; 56% of blacks and 44% of Hispanics admitted were diagnosed with schizophrenia (NIMH, 1987). The statistics suggest that black and Hispanics who are admitted to state mental hospitals are more frequently diagnosed with schizophrenia. Although there is no statistical evidence, we can conjecture that the increasing percentage of admissions with a diagnosis of schizophrenia is related to the increasing percentage of minority-race members admitted over the years. However, studies indicate that racial bias may be operative in the applying of the diagnoses of schizophrenia to racial/ethnic minorities. Results of a study by Pavkov, Lewis, and Lyons (1989) on psychiatric diagnoses and racial bias revealed that being black is predictive of a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Muhkerjee et al. (1983) found that blacks and Hispanics were more likely to be misdiagnosed as schizophrenic when they were, in fact, suffering from bipolar disorder. Many psychiatrists do not regard the psyches of African Americans as being more complex as those of whites (Gardner, 1990; Spurlock, 1985): ‘….therefore, the same symptoms that would be labeled as emotional or affective disorders among whites are labeled schizophrenic among African-American.’ (Solomon, 1992, p.374)” Fernando (1988) identified numerous studies in England…in which researchers found that a diagnosis of schizophrenia was significantly more commonly given to West Indians and West Africans than to other UK-born or migrant-group patients. As Kramer et al. (1973) wrote, ‘Racist practices undoubtedly are key factors—perhaps in the most important ones—in producing mental disorders in blacks and underprivileged groups, in determining the pace where members of the groups receive more diagnosis and treatment for these disorders, and in determining the quality of such clinical services.’ (p. 355).”