Racial Disparity in Psychotropic Medications Prescribed for Youths with Medicaid Insurance in Maryland

Design: A retrospective analysis was conducted using state Medicaid prescription drug reimbursement claims for youths aged 5 through 14 years according to the race of the recipients of psychotropic and medical drugs.

Method: A person-based data set was created from Medicaid administrative data for fiscal year 1991 from the state of Maryland to yield the following: (1) estimates of prevalence of prescription recipients per 100 eligible enrollees; (2) relative prescription use ratios according to race (African-American versus Caucasian); and (3) the interrelation of race and geographic region on prescription prevalence.

Results: Five major findings were observed: (1) African-American youths with Medicaid insurance aged 5 through 14 were less than half (39% to 52%) as likely to have been prescribed psychotropic medications as Caucasian youths with Medicaid insurance; (2) the relative difference for nonpsychotropic medication classes was much less pronounced: African-American youths were prescribed nonpsychotropic medications at a rate 60% to 87% of the Caucasian youths' rate; (3) the stimulants (essentially methylphenidate) had the most disparate African-American/Caucasian ratio (1:2.5); (4) the racial disparity for psychotropics was not altered by partial (noncontinuous enrollment) eligibility status; and (5) although geographic variation reduced the racial disparity, the substantial racial difference (1:2.0) remained.

Conclusion: Compared with Caucasians, African-American youths aged 5 through 14 with Medicaid insurance coverage showed a distinctly lower rate of treatment with psychopharmacological agents.