Important Health Topic

I’ve noticed and found that African Americans tend to not got to the doctor regularly and take notice to symptoms of disease and infection whether it is mental or physical. This is partially due to the fact that they do not trust doctors and feel that there is unfair treatment in their care compared to that of Caucasian patients. I’ve also noticed that in the mental health world that many African Americans with bipolar disorder either go undiagnosed or are misdiagnosed as schizophrenic and they are put on medications for the wrong disorder. It has been shown by the professors at the University of Connecticut that people of color including Latinos have excessively been misdiagnosed. Their plan is to find out why so many have been improperly diagnosed.


"Patients suffering from depression or bipolar disorder who only receive medications for schizophrenia will continue to experience their original symptoms," he said, "and they will be at risk for very poor outcomes.(1) My opinion is simple that doctors need to treat all patients fairly. These statistics aren’t shown in patients with fair skin so I feel that there should be more initiative to diagnosing people of color. One factor about why this is an issue is because of health insurance and lack of as to the type of service that the patients receive. Most people of color have little to no health insurance and so they are going to free clinics or less qualified doctors to receive treatment, and because they can’t pay much the doctor doesn’t take much initiative in diagnosing them so they receive the wrong diagnosis, the wrong medication, and it leads to negative results.

Another reason for [what?] African Americans is that underestimate the impact of mental disorders. Many believe symptoms of mental illnesses, such as depression, are “just the blues.” Issues of distrust in the health care system and mental illness stigma frequently lead African Americans to initially seek mental health support from non-medical sources.(2) I have seen from personal experiences that African American specifically shrug things off and put it off as something minimal when it is really something more than that. I’ve had three family members diagnosed with bipolar disorder. They shrugged it off at first as something minimal as having the “blues” or just “being down”. It progressed and things got worse but they never went and got help for it. For one family member it became so bad that he became a danger to himself and others. He was committed to the Psychiatric ward of the hospital and it was then found that he suffered from bipolar disorder. It was then that we found out the other two showed the same symptoms and assumed it was bipolar disorder. Part of the reasons why my other two family members never went for help is that they grew up during the civil rights era and never trusted the doctors because they kept the mentality that doctors aren’t fair and they discriminate against people of color.

People of color, especially African Americans, should take more care of themselves whether it is the mental or physical aspect of health. I also believe that doctors should take more initiative and care when diagnosing people of color in concerns of a medical disorder. The original purpose for the free clinics were so that people with little or no health insurance had someplace to go and receive effective and efficient medical at a low cost. These principles should be forced upon these clinics to ensure the correct treatment of people of color specifically. In return we break the chain of misdiagnoses and improper treatment of people of color. This will, in reaction, encourage more people of color to regularly see a physician and maintain mental and physical health.



Sources Cited

1. "Bipolar Disorders and African Americans." Bipolar Disorder Research Study (2005): n. pag. Web. 17 Nov 2009. .

2. "African Americans." American Psychiatric Association. . 2009. AMA, Web. 17 Nov 2009. .

3. “African American Health.” 2009. NLH, Web. 17 Nov 2009.