Black Children Less Likely to Receive Adequate Medication for Psychiatric Disorders

Black children are more likely to receive inadequate pharmacotherapy for their mental health conditions than children in other racial groups, astudy inPsychiatric Services in Advance has found. The study also suggests that children who have anxiety are more likely to receive inadequate pharmacotherapy than children who have other mental illnesses.Andrea S. Young, Ph.D., of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and colleagues analyzed data from 601 children aged six to 12 years who had visited one of nine outpatient mental health clinics and participated in the Longitudinal Assessment of Manic Symptoms study. The children and their parents were interviewed with the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia and the Service Assessment for Children and Adolescents to assess the child ’s psychiatric symptoms and lifetime mental health services use, respectively. The children’s global functioning was assessed via the Children’s Global Assessment Scale, and mental health service use data were collected by using the Service Assessment for Children and Adolescents.A child psychiatrist and a child psychologist reviewed the children ’s current and past psychiatric diagnoses, medications taken, psychotherapy received, psychiatric inpatient admissions, number of sessions, and duration of each intervention. They independently rated the children’s current pharmacologic and psychotherapy interventions as standard of care, adequa te, inadequate, inappropriate, ...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: anxiety Black children health disparities inadequate medication pharmacotherapy Psychiatric Services race treatment Source Type: research