Abstract
Cultural themes focusing on race-related issues and religiosity were identified via content analysis in the delusions and hallucinations of a sample of 118 African American psychiatric patients. The purpose of the study was to determine whether cultural themes in psychotic symptoms influence the diagnosis from different sources (i.e., chart, SCID, and best estimate) of schizophrenia for Black patients. It was hypothesized that the best estimate diagnoses of cultural experts would diagnose schizophrenia in African Americans more frequently when they exhibit race-related themes in their psychotic symptoms. It was also hypothesized that diagnosis of the paranoid subtype would yield a stronger difference among the sources than the broader category of schizophrenia. The results did not support the hypotheses. Implications for understanding the relationship between culture and psychosis among African Americans are discussed.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 457-471 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Mental Health, Religion and Culture |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 2009 |
Keywords
- African Americans
- Content analysis
- Culture
- Diagnosis
- Psychotic symptoms
- Schizophrenia
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Clinical Psychology
- Psychiatry and Mental health