Asian American and Pacific Islander (AA/PI) Community and Mental Health FACT SHEET

Did you know…
• There is very little research about mental health issues in these populations.
• Overall prevalence rates of diagnosable mental illnesses among AA/PIs are similar to those of the Caucasian population.
• Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have the lowest rates of utilization of mental health services among ethnic populations.i
• AA/PIs show higher levels of depressive symptoms than whites. South Asian refugees reported the highest rates among Asian
groups. ii
• The Chinese American Psychiatric Epidemiologic Study (CAPES study) found a lifetime prevalence rate of about 7 percent (lifetime)
and a 3 percent rate over one year.
• The National Comorbidity Study (NCS) reported even higher rates of major depression among Chinese Americans (17 percent for
lifetime and 10 percent current).iii
• The word depression does not exit in certain Asian languages (e.g. Chinese).
• The suicide rates for Filipino (3.5 percent), Chinese (8.3 percent) and Japanese (9.1 percent) Americans are substantially lower
than the suicide rate of white Americans (12.8 percent).iv
• Among elderly women of all ethnic or racial groups, Asians have the highest suicide rate.v
• According to mental health care providers: Asian American women ages 15-24 have a higher rate of suicide than Caucasians,
African Americans and Latinos in that age group.vi
• The Commonwealth Fund Survey of the Health of Adolescent Girls reported that Asian American adolescent girls had the highest
rates of depressive symptoms of all racial/ethnic and gender groups.vii
• Southeast Asians suffer from particularly high rates of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and exhibit more than twice
the need for outpatient mental health services than the general Asian population. viii
• Suicide rates are higher than the national average for some groups of Asian Americans.
• The suicide rate among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in California is similar to that of the total population. ix
• Many Southeast Asian refugees are at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) associated with trauma experienced before
and after immigration to the United States.
• One study found that 70 percent of Southeast Asian refugees receiving mental health care met diagnostic criteria for PTSD.
• In a study of Cambodian adolescents who survived Pol Pot’s concentration camps, nearly half experienced PTSD and 41 percent
suffered from depression 10 years after leaving Cambodia.x
• Approximately 70 AA/PI providers are available for every 100,000 AA/PIs in the United States, compared to 173 per 100,000
Caucasians.xi
• AA/PIs appear to have the extremely low utilization of mental health services relative to other U.S. populations.
• In the CAPES study, only 17 percent of those experiencing problems sought care.xii
• A national study concluded that Asian Americans were one quarter as likely as whites to seek mental health services and half as likely as Latinos and African Americans. xiii

Created by the NAMI Multicultural & International Outreach Center June, 2003

References
i Karen L. Koh, MPH and Margaret W. Leung, MPH. Asian Pacific Psychological Services, 431 30thStreet, Suite 6A, Oakland, CA 94609
ii Mental Health: Culture, Race, Ethnicity Supplement to Mental Health: Report of the Surgeon General.
iii Breaking the Silence. A Study of Depression Among Asian American Women. National Asian Women’s Health Organization, 2001.
iv Mental Health: Culture, Race, Ethnicity Supplement to Mental Health: Report of the Surgeon General.
v The Surgeon Gereral’s Call to Action to Prevent Suicide, 1999.
vi Monthly Vital Statistics Report. Center for Disease Control and Prevention/National Center for Health Statistics; Vol. 46, No. 1. August 17, 1997
vii Louis Harris and Associates, Inc., 1997.
viii Karen L. Koh, MPH and Margaret W. Leung, MPH. Asian Pacific Psychological Services, 431 30th Street, Suite 6A, Oakland, CA 94609
ix The Surgeon Gereral’s Call to Action to Prevent Suicide, 1999.
x Mental Health: Culture, Race, Ethnicity Supplement to Mental Health: Report of the Surgeon General.
xi Mental Health: Culture, Race, Ethnicity Supplement to Mental Health: Report of the Surgeon General.
xii Mental Health: Culture, Race, Ethnicity Supplement to Mental Health: Report of the Surgeon General.
xiii Snowden, LR. African American service use for mental health problems. Journal of Community Psychology.


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