Caveats in the neuropsychological assessment of African Americans

• Published in: Journal of the National Medical Association Vol. 94; no. 7; pp. 591 - 601
• Main Authors: CAMPBELL, Alfonso L, OCAMPO, Carlota, DENNIS, Gary, WEIR, Roger, HASTINGS, Alicia, KASHEMI DESHAWN RORIE, LEWIS, Sonya, COMBS, Shown, FORD-BOOKER, Phyllis, BRISCOE, Juanita, LEWIS-JACK, Ometha, BROWN, Andrew, WOOD, Don
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Thorofare, NJ Slack 01.07.2002; National Medical Association
• Subjects: African Americans; Biological and medical sciences; Culture; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Neuropsychological Tests; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics. Diagnostic aid systems; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reference Values; Techniques and methods; United States; North America; America; Human; Performance evaluation; Accuracy; Predictive value; Adult; Exploration; Technique; Neuropsychologia; Preliminary test; Comparative study; Bibliographic review; African American
• ISSN: 0027-9684; 1943-4693

This preliminary investigation examined the predictive accuracy of six neuropsychological tests in a population of non-brain-injured African Americans. False positives were unacceptably high on five of the neuropsychological tests administered. These pilot data raise important questions about the utility of neuropsychological test norms with groups dissimilar in sociocultural background to the normative population. These findings are examined in terms of the relative merits of the race-homogenous and race-comparative paradigms and underscore the importance of conducting normative studies that involve ethnic minority populations.