Stigma, Misdiagnosis Impede Treatment

A number of factors, including stigma and lack of insurance coverage,
keep many African-American elderly from seeking mental health care,
according to Warachal Faison, M.D., clinical director of the
Alzheimer's Research and Clinical Programs at the Medical University of
South Carolina and assistant director of the Institute for Research
Minority Training on Mental Health and Aging.

"If you are African American and have a mental illness," she said, "you
are considered to be a double minority." Faison is also vice chair of
APA's Committee on Ethnic Minority Elderly.

African Americans who seek mental health services are more likely to be
misdiagnosed with psychosis, less likely to be diagnosed with
depression, and less likely to receive a selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitor than are patients from other ethnic backgrounds, according to
Faison.

Elderly African Americans are also more likely than whites to be
misdiagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer's disease, she noted.

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