Doctors Misdiagnose More Black Men With Mental Illness Than Other Races

Researchers from the University of Michigan report in a recent study that black men are over-diagnosed with schizophrenia at least 5 five higher than any other group.

When Jonathan Metzl, an associate professor of psychiatry and women's studies at University of Michigan analyzed archived data from the Ionia State Hospital for the Criminally Insane he discovered that black men, particularly from Detroit during the civil rights era, were admitted and often misdiagnosed with schizophrenia.

"Some patients became schizophrenic because of changes in their diagnosis rahter than their clinical symptoms," Dr. Metzl reported. "Multicultural training is important, but it often does little to address how assumptions about race are strutucally embedded into health care delivery systems."

The findings from Dr. Metzl's study are published in his new book, "The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease."