Explaining Racial and Ethnic Differences in Antidepressant Use Among Adolescents.

We investigate the extent to which antidepressant use among adolescents varies across racial and ethnic subgroups. Using a representative sample of U.S. adolescents, we find that non—Hispanic White adolescents are over twice as likely as Hispanic adolescents, and over five times as likely as non—Hispanic Black adolescents to use antidepressants. Results from a decomposition analysis indicate that racial⁄ethnic differences in characteristics, including household income, parental education, health insurance, and having a usual source of care explain between one half and two thirds of the gap in antidepressant use between Hispanics and non—Hispanic Whites. In contrast, none of the gap between Whites and Blacks in antidepressant use is explained by differences in observed characteristics. Further analysis suggests that there are large racial⁄ethnic differences in the extent to which behavioral and mental health problems prompt antidepressant use and that this may, in part, account for the large differences across race⁄ethnicity observed in our study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]