Koreans with psychiatric disorders are less likely than affected individuals in other countries to utilize mental health services due to social stigma or loss of face (Cho et al., 2009; Abe-Kim et al., 2007). Being reluctant and embarrassed about seeking help related to their mental problems, Koreans might be more inclined to self-medicate the symptoms of mood or anxiety problems than their Western counterparts. This may also help explain why the degree of the SUD-psychiatric comorbidity among Koreans was consistently greater than that among Americans when statistically significant ORs were examined. However, this postulation is speculative and warrants further investigation.
