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Are There Racial Differences in the Experience of Harmful or Traumatic Events within Psychiatric Settings?

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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 forty-two (109 African-American; 32 Caucasian) randomly selected adult consumers recruited from a community psychosocial day program completed a battery of self-report 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 African-Americans and Caucasian public-sector psychiatric patients.

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Acknowledgment

This work was partially supported by grants MH01660 and MH65517 from the National Institute of Mental Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB 7590, 725 Martin Luther King, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7590, USA

    Karen J. Cusack Ph.D.

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA

    Anouk L. Grubaugh Ph.D.

  3. Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Charleston, SC, USA

    Anouk L. Grubaugh Ph.D.

  4. Biostatistics, Bioinformatics and Epidemiology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA

    Eunsil Yim M.S. & Rebecca G. Knapp Ph.D.

  5. Westat, Rockville, MD, USA

    Cynthia S. Robins Ph.D.

  6. Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii at Hilo, Hilo, HI, USA

    B. Christopher Frueh Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Karen J. Cusack Ph.D.
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  2. Anouk L. Grubaugh Ph.D.
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  3. Eunsil Yim M.S.
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  4. Rebecca G. Knapp Ph.D.
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  5. Cynthia S. Robins Ph.D.
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  6. B. Christopher Frueh Ph.D.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karen J. Cusack Ph.D..

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Cusack, K.J., Grubaugh, A.L., Yim, E. et al. Are There Racial Differences in the Experience of Harmful or Traumatic Events within Psychiatric Settings?. Psychiatr Q 78, 101–115 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-006-9031-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-006-9031-x

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