Racial differences have been documented in asthma rates, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, maternal and infant health outcomes, and overall lifespan, with stark disparities highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pamplin’s doctoral research examined differences in depression and suicidality, topics that Keyes, MPH’06, PhD’10, also a former PET fellow, has studied for over a decade.
Recently, PET faculty, including Pamplin and Keyes, have focused on the role of structural racism in schizophrenia. “When it comes to schizophrenia and psychosis, there’s evidence that folks from marginalized racial groups—in particular, folks with Black, African, or Caribbean racial/ethnic identity in Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States—have a higher prevalence of schizophrenia,” Pamplin explains. “Those prevalences aren’t as elevated in places where those groups are dominant. It has to do with racial marginalization.”