'MO - June 2008 - (Page 24)

your health matters Anatomy of a Myth By Bryan Ochalla Gays are supposed to be more depressed than straight people, right? Well, maybe. For years, the notion that gays and lesbians are more prone to mental health issues such as anxiety disorders, depression, and suicidal thinking has been accepted almost as gospel. So you might be surprised to know that there was virtually no basis for the assumption. Of the dozens of scientiﬁc studies conducted before the millennium, none used sound epidemiologic standards, says Ben McCommon, M.D., an attending psychiatrist at New York Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University faculty member, so “it’s hard to place any reliance on them.” Even now, “there isn’t a lot of good research out there,” says Jack Drescher, M.D., former chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Committee on Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Concerns. Since 2000, he says, only six reputable studies have been completed on gay and lesbian mental health—not nearly enough to say anything conclusively about our psychological needs. So how did the myth that gay people are at higher risk for mental health issues develop in the ﬁrst place? Problematic research methods, say experts. Instead of using randomly selected subjects, studies on the topic typically relied on advertisements or gay bars to recruit volunteers—a far cry from the gold standard of epidemiology, which requires a truly representative sample of the entire group of people under examination. “People in bars are not likely to be representative of the general gay population,” says McCommon. “They’re likely to have higher rates of alcohol abuse and dependence.” And people who answer advertisements, he adds, have also proven to not be sufﬁciently reﬂective of the community at large. Accordingly, studies using such “convenience samples,” as they’re known in the research world, produced exaggerated results about gay and lesbian mental health—akin to “looking at the numbers that show gay people with HIV die younger than the general population and then saying all gay people also die at a younger age,” says Drescher. Fortunately, studies from the last several years have utilized properly random groups of volunteers, providing a legitimate look at mental health issues among gays and lesbians for the ﬁrst time. Says McCommon: “We’re just beginning to have really good evidencebased knowledge about mental health in gay, lesbian and bisexual populations.” And so far, results suggest that perhaps gay people actually do have a higher incidence of mental disorders. One U.S. study from 2001, for instance, found higher rates of suicidal thoughts and drug abuse and dependence among homosexual men and higher rates of suicidal thoughts, major depression, anxiety disorders and drug abuse among homosexual women. In another U.S. study, from 2003, gay and bisexual men were found to have higher rates of major depression and panic disorder than their heterosexual counterparts, while lesbians were more likely to suffer from generalized anxiety disorder than straight women. Recent studies from the Netherlands and New Zealand have reached similar conclusions. Still, much more research needs to be done before any ﬁrm scientiﬁc assessments can be made. According to Drescher, the APA’s Committee on Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Issues has been lobbying its parent organization to encourage more direct study of gay and lesbian mental health and is busy preparing a white paper on the matter. He’s hoping one of the outcomes of the committee’s work is that the forthcoming DSM-V—the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a handbook that lists different categories of mental disorders and the criteria for diagnosing them—will include what is and isn’t known about the subject, especially since one of the goals of the manual is to lay out future areas of research. “It’s good that we have as many studies as we do, because at least they provide us with some data” about gay and lesbian mental health, Drescher says. “What we’re seeing right now, though, is just a slice of some people’s lives. It would be great to see the whole picture for a change.” Bryan Ochalla is a freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in DiversityInc, Seattle Sound and The Advocate. Depressed? Find a Therapist Well-Versed in LGBT Issues Think you may be depressed or suffering from some other mental disorder? Chris Tolfree, a psychotherapist at Seattle Counseling Service suggests you’ll “get better care from a therapist who has a ﬁrm grasp of the issues speciﬁc to being queer. “There are speciﬁcs that we as queers deal with in our lives that are different from our straight brothers and sisters,” such as externalized and internalized homophobia, he adds—both of which are “based on centuries of biblical, legal and moral hate mongering.” Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning and intersex (LGBTQI) individuals “can become so jaded to the daily jests, jeers and comments that we 24 think we are not affected by cultural or societal homophobia,” Tolfree says. “Consequently, we can minimize the impact this may have on our mental health.” Therapists who have experience working with LGBTQI individuals will be better able to treat addiction and other issues commonly seen within the community as well. So, Tolfree says, “if you’re queer and seeking treatment for mental health issues, make sure your prospective counselor is well-versed in LGBTQI issues.” For more information, call 206.323.1768, go to www.seattlecounseling.org or stop in at 1216 Pine Street, Suite 300. celebrating seattle’s gay community http://www.oasisvancouver.com http://www.seattlecounseling.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of 'MO - June 2008

'MO Seattle - June 2008 Contents Letter From The Editor Voices Instant Activist Pet Project: Do You Dream About Your Pet? ’mo-BIZ: Anne Levison, Co-owner of the Seattle Storm Legally Speaking: Real Estate Buying Basics The Things We Do: Getting “Out”doors this Summer Seattle Pride Events Calendar ’mo Magazine Interview with Sandra Bernhard Anatomy of a Myth Form & Function: Turn Up the Heat on Your Triceps Gay City: National HIV Testing Day San Francisco: If Gay Had a Headquarters Book Review: Chronicle of a Plague, Revisited by Andrew Holleran Augusten Burroughs Coming to Showtime Network Sex and the City Romances the Big Screen SceneOut: People@Places Capitol Hill Guide

'MO - June 2008

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