Prevalence and Diagnosis Rates of Childhood ADHD Among Racial-Ethnic Groups in a Public Mental Health System.

Objective: This study estimated the proportions of Hispanic and non-Hispanic white and black children ages three to 17 with a diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) receiving services from the New York State public mental health system (NYS PMHS) and their annual treated ADHD prevalence rates. Findings were compared with those of recent national studies of general population samples.

Methods: Data were from a 2011 survey of users of NYS PMHS nonresidential services.

Racial differences in the availability and use of electroconvulsive therapy for recurrent major depression.

Background: Black Americans with depression were less likely to receive electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) than whites during the 1970s and 80s. This pattern was commonly attributed to treatment of blacks in lower quality hospitals where ECT was unavailable. We investigated whether a racial difference in receiving ECT persists, and, if so, whether it arises from lesser ECT availability or from lesser ECT use within hospitals conducting the procedure.

The Nathan Kline Institute cultural competency assessment scale: psychometrics and implications for disparity reduction.

The NKI Cultural Competency Assessment Scale measures organizational CC in mental health outpatient settings. We describe its development and results of tests of its psychometric properties. When tested in 27 public mental health settings, factor analysis discerned three factors explaining 65% of the variance; each factor related to a stage of implementation of CC.

Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of vigabatrin for the treatment of cocaine dependence in Mexican parolees.

Objective: Cocaine dependence is associated with severe medical, psychiatric, and social morbidity, but no pharmacotherapy is approved for its treatment in the United States. The atypical antiepileptic vigabatrin (gamma-vinyl gamma-aminobutyric acid [GABA]) has shown promise in animal studies and open-label trials. The purpose of the present study was to assess the efficacy of vigabatrin for short-term cocaine abstinence in cocaine-dependent individuals.