Effects of Ethnicity on Psychotropic Medications Adherence

We compared psychotropic medication adherence rates in monolingual-Hispanics (mostly Puerto Ricans), bilingual-Hispanics, and African–Americans as compared with Caucasians in 122 subjects recruited from a community mental health center (CMHC). After controlling for possible confounding factors monolingual-Hispanics and African–Americans had lower medication adherence rates (77% and 68%, respectively) than Caucasians (90%). Older age was a significant predictor of higher adherence among monolingual-Hispanics. Depressive symptoms were associated with lower adherence and more years of past treatment with higher adherence among Caucasians. Further studies are needed to better understand and improve adherence among Hispanics and African–Americans.