Symptom Severity in Bilingual Hispanics as a Function of Clinician Ethnicity and Language of Interview

Research on bilingual patients is equivocal about how language influences clinical judgment in psychiatric interviews. In this study, 148 Hispanics with schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety disorders were interviewed in English, Spanish, or both. Hispanic clinicians rated symptoms more severe than did Anglo clinicians, and severity was rated highest in bilingual interviews, followed by Spanish, and lowest in English. Results have implications for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edition; American Psychiatric Association, 1994 ) cultural considerations.