Depression in ethnically diverse women: Implications for treatment in primary care settings.

What do health care practitioners need to know about providing adequate care for depressed minority women? This article examined the prevalence of depressive symptoms and clinical depression in ethnic minorities, the extent to which current health service utilization is congruent with needs, and the effectiveness of treatments provided to ethnic minorities in the primary care setting. The impact of ethnic minority women's sociocultural context on symptom expression and help-seeking behavior is also discussed. Finally, the clinical implications for accurate assessment and treatment of ethnic minority women by both medical and mental health practitioners working in the primary care sector are addressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors of help seeking for emotional distress among Chinese Americans: Family matters.

Using data from the Chinese American Psychiatric Epidemiological Study, the authors examined longitudinal predictors of help seeking for emotional distress in a community sample of 1,503 Chinese Americans. Specifically, they assessed the relative contribution of family relational variables (e.g., levels of family support and family conflict) in predicting help seeking for medical, mental health, and informal services. After traditional need, predisposing, and enabling factors were controlled for in hierarchical logistic regression analyses, family conflict predicted both mental health and medical service use, whereas family support was not predictive of help seeking. In addition to family conflict, mental health service use was predicted by negative life events, emotional distress, and insurance coverage. Implications of the findings for assessing and treating Asian American clients are explored. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)