| Popis: |
Research on depression has found women are two to four times more likely than men to receive a diagnosis of major depression and dysthymia. The current study was designed to explore clinician diagnostic bias. Studies that have specifically examined clinician gender bias in the diagnosis and assessment of clients with depressive symptoms have produced varied results. Most of the studies on clinician bias in assessing and diagnosing depressive disorders have neglected client variables pertaining to race and sexual orientation. Similarly, research focused on depression and race has often ignored gender. No research has been conducted evaluating therapist bias in diagnosing depression in lesbian/gay versus heterosexual clients. The present study was designed to broaden the knowledge base about the effects of multiple client characteristics (race, gender, sexual orientation) on clinician judgment of depressive symptomatology, with the rationale that clients are more complex than just the single characteristics that have been the focus of many of the studies on clinician bias. The questionnaire, developed for use in this study, contained a short case vignette describing the clinical presentation of a client with depressive symptomology. The vignettes were identical except for client gender, race, and sexual orientation. Clinicians were asked to assess the client described in the vignette on Axis I and II diagnoses, global functioning, prognosis, and treatment recommendations. Six hundred psychologists were randomly selected from the American Psychological Association (APA) Member Database. Three waves of mailings were sent out. Total response rate was 41.7%. Client sexual orientation, race, and gender did not play a significant role in clinician's assessment of diagnosis, global functioning, prognosis, or treatment recommendations. GAF ratings were dependent at the trend level on sexual orientation, whereby lesbian/gay clients were assessed as lower functioning than their heterosexual counterparts. The overall findings seem to indicate good news: psychologists do not demonstrate race, gender, and sexual orientation bias when assessing and diagnosing clients with depressive symptoms. However, further exploration of this interpretation is warranted, especially in terms of the limitations of the study. |
