Despite the increased visibility of Latino and Asian Americans across the United States, limited national information is available on these populations about the prevalence of mental disorders and the use of mental health services. The lack of quality data for Latinos and Asian Americans make it difficult to develop coherent public policies need prevention and treatment program that are appropriate for these populations. The NLAAS is the most comprehensive study of Latinos and Asian Americans ever conducted using up-to-date scientific strategies in the design, sampling procedures, psychiatric assessments, and analytic techniques. The survey was completed in December 2003 and final weights are being constructed for the data. In this talk, I will describe the overall study design, frame NLAAS within past studies, and describe two small experiments we conducted in the survey. The first experiment tests whether language (Spanish vs English) influences prevalence rates. The second examines how the order of questions in the use of services affects the rates of service use.
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