Study Says Depression Is More Severe and Untreated in Blacks

A study published in the March issue of Archives of General Psychiatry says that blacks in America experience major depression less often than their white counterparts. When they do experience depression, however, it is more severe and they are less likely to get treatment. The correlation held true regardless of whether they were born in the U.S., the Caribbean or Africa.

In the article, Dr. David R. Williams and colleagues from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and from Wayne State University, Detroit, presented their findings from 6,082 black Americans surveyed over 28 months via the National Survey of American Life, part of the National Institute of Mental Health’s Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys.

While Dr. Williams acknowledges that their study had several limitations in its construction, he says that the study does point out the necessity to identify high-risk subgroups within racial populations.