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Friday 5 February 2010

Black men suffer high rates of mental health and schizophrenia , explanation...you guessed it!

According to the Health Development Agency, ‘Young black men are over-represented in the mental health statistics’ (Health Development Agency, 2001, p. 36), particularly in terms of diagnosis for schizophrenia, which is generally three times higher for the African-Caribbean population than for the UK white population. Young black men are over-represented in hospital admissions for mental health problems, contact with psychiatry via the police, courts and prison, and at the same time are under-represented in outpatient and self-referral service.
The Open University

The Guardian argues that the high level of mental illness is NOT genetic in any way.
However a journal article in 2004 written by Arthur L. Whaley, PhD, DrPH states:

Epidemiological data on ethnic racial differences in
inpatient psychiatric treatment consistently show,
regardless of type of hospital, that African Americans
are overrepresented among those with diagnoses of
schizophrenia and underrepresented among those
with diagnoses of affective disorder. The prevalence
of diagnoses of paranoid schizophrenia is particularly
striking among African-American inpatients. Prevalence
studies of inpatient samples revealed that paranoid
schizophrenia is the most frequent diagnosis
given to African Americans.

The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law

Bearing in mind the Atlantic Ocean separates the US black population and the U.K population, the genetic explanation is the only viable one. Medicine and politics should always be independent of each other. When political correctness gets involved then the people who need the help may not receive it. More concerning is black men (or any other group) being unsuitably released just to show the managers aren't racist. This is totally unacceptable and puts innocent people in danger.

A quick search on this subject brings up a ream of articles pointing out how black people have suffered at the hands of white people, hinting that the mental health of black people is our fault! I find this ridiculous, and as countless studies have shown, it is p.c nonsense.

Another bizarre claim is that cannabis is not linked to schizophrenia. When you read articles about black mental health they often 'stress' this point. Why do they do this when there is a mountain of evidence that proves schizophrenia and cannabis are linked?
See Cannabis 'can increase risk of schizophrenia by 40%'

And here: U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health

The recent articles denying this link are from organizations such as
Black Mental Health org

Worryingly the p.c bastion known as the
NHS is also working hard to suggest Cannabis and schizophrenia are not linked. At the same time however the governments (useful) drug advice service for young people, Talk to Frank, says the opposite.

The tragedy here is by telling the black community there is no link, is like saying smoke away, no problem. It may also wrongly inform British (ethnic British) teenagers that there are no risks to mental health from smoking cannabis. This is clearly wrong and is putting our young people in danger for the sake of political correctness.

Some people may bring up 'super skunk' or mention the strong strand known as 'cheese'. This also is a misnomer because A, many studies made the link before these strands were created and B, those two varieties are mostly what is now available anyway.

One of the few things i have approved of with our current government are the hard hitting anti drink drive campaigns, and the campaigns to warn young people of the dangers of drugs. It seems in the name of political correctness they are even scrapping this strategy in fear of offending black people.

Black people clearly are 3 times more likely to suffer from mental health. Smoking cannabis makes someone, white or black, more susceptible to mental health. With a large proportion of the black community using cannabis, it is my firm opinion that the two factors together explain the costly problem of high rates of mental health in black males.

1 comments:

Anonymous 29 January 2012 at 21:15  

I don't see how the writer can come to the assumption that black males are more likely to suffer from schizophrenia than white males because of cannabis smoking. I think that this particular writer has a stereotypical prospective on this subject. He/She does not present any evidence to back up their opinions. Therefor their opinion is not justified.

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