Cross-cultural perspective on paranoia: a focus on the black American experience

A cross-cultural perspective on paranoia is developed, based on a synthesis of three distinct areas of research, with particular attention to the Black experience in America. This perspective is applied in a two-phase program of research. Phase I was the secondary analysis of data from an epidemiologic study of schizophrenia and depression: It examined differences in paranoid symptom expression among Black, Latino, and White Americans. Phase II, called the Culturally-Sensitive Diagnostic Interview Research Project, is currently underway and involves primary data collection, focusing exclusively on African Americans. Phase I results and some pilot data from the phase II study are reported. It is concluded that cultural mistrust among Black psychiatric patients should not be construed as psychopathology.