I am trying to report most days on something I find of interest in the scholarly literature, in part to balance the theology. There are rules to this. The paper has to be publicly accessible, and it has to be an area I know something about. Recently I was working with a colleague who reported that there was increased adversity in childhood in those who had sex with people of the same Gender. This paper caused distress to a extremely careful and precise woman who would and did go out of her way to avoid offence.
Her paper is available at your local library. This paper is out on the web. The authors decided to survey six practices in Sydney that had a high proportion of Gay men on their lists. They found that the GPs were missing some cases…
Of the 704 men for whom we had data on all three measures, there was agreement among all three measures in the assessment of depression for 99 men (14.1%). In particular, the agreement between GP clinical diagnosis and the PHQ-9 screen for major depression was moderately high (Cohen’s ? = 0.48;). There was also agreement between the three measures that 385 men (54.7%) did not have major depression. Using the PHQ-9 screening results as the standard, the psychometric properties of the GP diagnosis of current depression were: sensitivity 64.4%; specificity 84.7%; positive predictive value 59.2%; and negative predictive value 87.4%
When grouped by patients’ self-reported HIV-status, the two DSM-IV-based measures indicated that the HIV-positive men had the highest rates of major depression, at over 30%. Across all three HIV-status categories, the overall rates of clinical depression identified by the participating GPs closely corresponded with the overall rates of major depression as measured by the PHQ-9 screening tool and with the overall rates of depression as reported by the patients themselves.
With regard to self-reported sexual identification, the two DSM-IV-based measures revealed that men who regarded themselves as neither gay/homosexual nor heterosexual had the highest rates of major depression, at over 40%
I used to work in a community mental health team in Ponsonby. I had a number of Gay clients — mainly male. The amount of psychological pain that many of these men had suffered, in their earlier life (many of them had been teenagers and adults before homosexuality was legalised in New Zealand) was much, much higher than straight men — and I see a straight man who is suicidal because his partner has left with the kids at least once a week.
I can believe these papers, from what I have seen. And the sooner that the Gay Rights Activitsts start talking about the mental health needs — including recovery from violence — among men who love men, the better.