Bias Detection in Emergency Psychiatry: Linking Negative Language to Diagnostic Disparities

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Valentine, Alissa A., Lepow, Lauren A., Apakama, Donald, Chan, Lili, Charney, Alexander W., Landi, Isotta
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Valentine, Alissa A.
Lepow, Lauren A.
Apakama, Donald
Chan, Lili
Charney, Alexander W.
Landi, Isotta
author_facet Valentine, Alissa A.
Lepow, Lauren A.
Apakama, Donald
Chan, Lili
Charney, Alexander W.
Landi, Isotta
contents The emergency department (ED) is a high stress environment with increased risk of clinician bias exposure. In the United States, Black patients are more likely than other racial/ethnic groups to obtain their first schizophrenia (SCZ) diagnosis in the ED, a highly stigmatizing disorder. Therefore, understanding the link between clinician bias exposure and psychiatric outcomes is critical for promoting nondiscriminatory decision-making in the ED. This study examines the association between clinician bias exposure and psychiatric diagnosis using a sample of patients with anxiety, bipolar, depression, trauma, and SCZ diagnoses (N=29,005) from a diverse, large medical center. Clinician bias exposure was quantified as the ratio of negative to total number of sentences in psychiatric notes, labeled using a large language model (Mistral). We utilized logistic regression to predict SCZ diagnosis when controlling for patient demographics, risk factors, and negative sentence ratio (NSR). A high NSR significantly increased one's odds of obtaining a SCZ diagnosis and attenuated the effects of patient race. Black male patients with high NSR had the highest odds of being diagnosed with SCZ. Our findings suggest sentiment-based metrics can operationalize clinician bias exposure with real world data and reveal disparities beyond race or ethnicity.
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publishDate 2025
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spellingShingle Bias Detection in Emergency Psychiatry: Linking Negative Language to Diagnostic Disparities
Valentine, Alissa A.
Lepow, Lauren A.
Apakama, Donald
Chan, Lili
Charney, Alexander W.
Landi, Isotta
Other Quantitative Biology
Machine Learning
The emergency department (ED) is a high stress environment with increased risk of clinician bias exposure. In the United States, Black patients are more likely than other racial/ethnic groups to obtain their first schizophrenia (SCZ) diagnosis in the ED, a highly stigmatizing disorder. Therefore, understanding the link between clinician bias exposure and psychiatric outcomes is critical for promoting nondiscriminatory decision-making in the ED. This study examines the association between clinician bias exposure and psychiatric diagnosis using a sample of patients with anxiety, bipolar, depression, trauma, and SCZ diagnoses (N=29,005) from a diverse, large medical center. Clinician bias exposure was quantified as the ratio of negative to total number of sentences in psychiatric notes, labeled using a large language model (Mistral). We utilized logistic regression to predict SCZ diagnosis when controlling for patient demographics, risk factors, and negative sentence ratio (NSR). A high NSR significantly increased one's odds of obtaining a SCZ diagnosis and attenuated the effects of patient race. Black male patients with high NSR had the highest odds of being diagnosed with SCZ. Our findings suggest sentiment-based metrics can operationalize clinician bias exposure with real world data and reveal disparities beyond race or ethnicity.
title Bias Detection in Emergency Psychiatry: Linking Negative Language to Diagnostic Disparities
topic Other Quantitative Biology
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.02651