Ethnic differences in mental illness severity when hospitalized
The population-based study, published earlier this month in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry , was led by researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). The study represents the largest and most rigorous examination of mental illness severity among Asian populations living in a western country. "We found that, when compared to patients from other populations, Chinese and South Asian patients were on average much sicker by the time they got to hospital," says Dr. Maria Chiu, principal investigator and scientist at ICES . "While Chinese and South Asian people make up the two largest ethnic minority groups in Canada, to date research on mental illness in these groups has been limited." Using a database that houses information on adult inpatients in designated mental health beds across all Ontario hospitals, the research team analyzed information on over 133,000 patients hospitalized f