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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Schizophrenia
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1280253
This article is part of the Research Topic Tales from Across the Psychosis Spectrum: Understanding Differences and Similarities in Mechanisms and Experiences View all 4 articles

Racial and Ethnic Differences in Comorbid Psychosis: A Population-Based Study

Provisionally accepted
Mariam Sankoh Mariam Sankoh 1*James Clifford James Clifford 2Roseann E. Peterson Roseann E. Peterson 3,4Elizabeth Prom-Wormley Elizabeth Prom-Wormley 5
  • 1 Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, United States
  • 2 Department of Public Health, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, United States
  • 3 Downstate Health Sciences University, State of New York, New York, United States
  • 4 Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, California, United States
  • 5 Department of Family Medicine and Population Health, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Differences in the prevalence of psychiatric conditions such as psychosis as well as patterns of comorbidity for psychosis have been reported between racial and ethnic groups. It is unclear whether those differences are consistent for comorbid psychosis. METHODS. Selfreported diagnostic data from American adults ages 18-99 participating in the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES) (N ~ 11,844) were used to test the association between four racial and ethnic group categories (White, Asian, Hispanic, Black) and comorbid psychosis. Comorbid psychosis was measured as a 4-level categorical variable (No mental illness nor psychosis, Mental Illness, Psychosis only, comorbid psychosis (i.e., Psychosis + Mental Illness). Chi-square tests were used to determine significant differences in the prevalence of comorbid psychosis by race and ethnicity. A multinomial logistic regression was used to test the association between racial and ethnic classifications and comorbid psychosis after adjusting for common demographic characteristics (i.e., education, sex, income, and age). RESULTS. Relative to White participants, Hispanic and Asian participants were less likely to be affected with comorbid psychosis. (Adjusted Odds Ratio, AORAsian = 0.32, CI = 0.22 -0.47, p <0.0001, AORHispanic = 0.66, CI = 0.48 -0.92, p = 0.012). Relative to White participants there was not significant association for comorbid psychosis in Black participants (AORBlack = 0.91, CI = 0.70 -1.20, p = 0.52) In contrast Hispanic and Black participants were more likely to report psychosis alone (AORHispanic = 1.94, CI = 1.27-2.98, p = 0.002, AORBlack = 1.86, 1.24-2.82, p = 0.003) compared to White participants. CONCLUSION. There were different patterns of associations by race and ethnicity for psychosis and comorbid psychosis. The lower prevalence of comorbid psychosis in non-White groups may be due to underdiagnosis or underreporting of other mental disorders.

    Keywords: Comorbidity, psychosis, comorbid psychosis, race, ethnicity, Population study

    Received: 19 Aug 2023; Accepted: 27 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Sankoh, Clifford, Peterson and Prom-Wormley. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Mariam Sankoh, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, United States

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