TABLE 2.

Racial-ethnic disparities in “appropriate care” of 6,206 MEPS respondents with probable mental illness^a

	Any outpatient medical expenditure		Any psychotropic medication expenditure
Measure	M	SD	M	SD
Whites	28.4	.9	42.5	1.2
Blacks	20.8	1.2	25.0	1.5
Latinos	22.2	1.5	27.6	1.3
Disparity
Between whites and blacks*	7.7	1.6	17.5	2.0
Between whites and Latinos*	6.3	1.7	14.9	1.6

^aSource: 2004–2010 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Appropriate care was defined as any outpatient mental health care and any psychotropic drug use. Disparities were calculated by applying the Institute of Medicine definition of racial-ethnic disparities with the use of a rank-and-replace method that adjusts for need variables.

^*p<.05