Introducing this Special Issue on the "Mental Health of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders".

There are approximately 1.4 million Asian American and Pacific Islanders who are suffering from some form of psychiatric disorder. Given the extent of this problem, I wish that we could provide specific epidemiological estimates of psychiatric disorders among Asian Americans. Unfortunately, there are few, if any, reliable and valid community-based epidemiological data on Asian Americans at this point. Given this state of affairs, it is quite important that we continue to do research on the mental needs and problems among Asian Americans so that we can provide the much needed mental health services.