This story looks at work by James Jackson that confronts an observed paradox: African Americans tend to have worse health outcomes than whites, but lower rates of depression. Jackson et al found that the black-white gap in diagnosed depression in the US – 18% for whites, 10% for blacks – may be related to whites seeking diagnosis versus blacks self medicating with smoking, drinking or drugs. “It’s a perverse tradeoff,” Jackson says. “Blacks and other groups in society may ‘buy’ their reduced rates of psychiatric disorders with higher rates of physical morbidities and early mortality.”