Understanding the rates and distribution of mental disorders

The increasing diversity of the American public has challenged mental health professionals to expand their knowledge base to include issues of race, culture, and ethnicity. A fundamental issue is whether or not the rates and distribution of mental disorder in the community vary by ethnic group. Unfortunately, this deceptively simple question has not been satisfactorily answered despite the growing number of studies examining mental illness among European Americans, African Americans, Latinos, and more recently American Indians and Asian Americans. Critical methodological and conceptual problems have complicated our understanding and assessment of ethnic differences and highlight the need for improvements in research methods and assessment practices. This chapter will review the available community prevalence data for Asian Americans compared to other groups and discuss the conceptual and methodological issues that have influenced the state of the field. In addition, within-group variables that influence the prevalence of mental disorders will be discussed.