A Review of Reviews Assessing Patient–Provider Racial and Ethnic Concordance in Mental Health

Introduction: Physician–patient racial and ethnic concordance is an oft studied area within the field of mental health. As research on this topic has increased in volume and complexity over the years, it is worth examining the lessons learned. The objective of this paper was to assess reviews related to this topic to find commonalities in the literature and recommend future steps for research. Methods: A review of systematic reviews was conducted to rapidly summarize the evidence related to physician–patient racial and ethnic concordance in mental health. A comprehensive search was run in PubMed, EMBASE, PsychINFO, and Web of Science databases. Covidence was used to manage the review process from title screening to extraction. The AMSTAR-2 tool was used to assess the quality of the included systematic reviews. Results: Ten reviews were included in this study. While the collective results of the reviews were heterogenous, there were commonalities identified. For example, Black clients typically experience poorer mental health outcomes in comparison to their counterparts and racial/ethnic matching tends to have a greater effect for this group. Additionally, a few articles discussed the importance of understanding and integrating cultural perspectives into therapeutic techniques and interventions. Discussion: There is some evidence that racial and ethnic concordance for certain groups can assist in building rapport in the therapist-patient relationship. Future research should focus on multiple measures of concordance, the intersection between them, and investigate mediators and moderators to therapeutic outcomes. Furthermore, cultural considerations should be meaningfully incorporated into every aspect of mental health service.