Hallucinations and delusions in black psychiatric patients.

A higher incidence of hallucinations has been previously reported among blacks, as compared to whites, in both psychiatric and nonpsychiatric populations. In contrast to these reports, which relied on hospital records, the present study utilized standardized research rating scales, and confirmed the above observation among schizophrenic patients. Some blacks, irrespective of diagnosis, probably experience a variety of non-schizophrenic hallucinations, may lead to erroneous diagnoses of schizophrenia. Current ignorance regarding the content of hallucinations in normal and non-schizophrenic, and in schizophrenic blacks is a source of diagnostic confusion which may have dire consequences for many individuals.