Depression Hits U.S. Blacks Harder Than Whites - washingtonpost.com: Black Americans are more likely than whites to suffer severe, untreated and disabling depression, U.S. research shows.
Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health analyzed data on 6,082 people who took part in a national survey conducted between 2001 and 2003.
They found that 17.9 percent of white Americans had depression at some point in their lives, compared with 10.4 percent of blacks of African descent and 12.9 percent of blacks of West Indian or Caribbean descent.
Rates of depression in the 12 months before they were surveyed were 7.2 percent for Caribbean blacks; 6.9 percent for whites; and 5.9 percent for blacks of African descent. Among those who reported depression at some point in their lives, rates of depression in the 12 months before they were surveyed were 56.5 percent for blacks of African descent; 56 percent for Caribbean blacks; and 38.6 percent for whites.
