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World J Psychiatr. Dec 22, 2014; 4(4): 133-140
Published online Dec 22, 2014. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v4.i4.133
Racial disparities in psychotic disorder diagnosis: A review of empirical literature
Robert C Schwartz, David M Blankenship
Robert C Schwartz, David M Blankenship, School of Counseling, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-5007, United States
Author contributions: Both authors contributed equally to this article.
Conflict-of-interest: We are aware of no conflict of interest or other potential ethical conflicts.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Robert C Schwartz, Professor, School of Counseling, The University of Akron, 302 Buchtel Common, Akron, OH 44325-5007, United States. rcs@uakron.edu
Telephone: +1-330-9728155 Fax: +1-330-9725292
Received: August 26, 2014
Peer-review started: August 27, 2014
First decision: October 14, 2014
Revised: November 3, 2014
Accepted: December 3, 2014
Article in press: December 10, 2014
Published online: December 22, 2014
Processing time: 119 Days and 12.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: An updated review of empirical research related to race and diagnosis of psychotic disorders is provided. This manuscript concludes with addressing potential causes of racial diagnostic disparities with implications for future research. Although the topic of race and diagnosis has received increasing attention in the professional literature, a full review of empirical studies is needed to summarize patterns among research results. Due to the broad consumer implications of psychotic disorder-related misdiagnosis (e.g., social stigma, hospitalizations, psychotropic medications, relational and employment discrimination, and increased risk of suicide) better understanding of this phenomenon is clearly warranted.