Mental health of the non-heterosexual population of England

To add to the growing body of methodologically sound empirically grounded evidence from Michael King et al. is the following report from the BJP.

Mental health of the non-heterosexual population of England

Apu Chakraborty, BA, MA, MB BS, MRCPsych, MSc, DLSHTM, PhD

Department of Mental Health Sciences, University College London, London

Sally McManus, MSc

National Centre for Social Research, London

Terry S. Brugha, FRCPsych

Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester

Paul Bebbington, MA, MPhil, PhD, FRCP, FRCPsych and Michael King, MD, PhD

Department of Mental Health Sciences, Royal Free and University College Medical School, London, UK

Correspondence: Correspondence: Apu Chakraborty, Department of Mental Health Sciences, University College London, Royal Free Campus, Rowland Hill Street, London NW3 2PF, UK. Email: rejuatc@ucl.ac.uk

Declaration of interest

None.

Background

There has been little research into the prevalence of mental health problems in lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people in the UK with most work conducted in the USA.

Aims

To relate the prevalence of mental disorder, self-harm and suicide attempts to sexual orientation in England, and to test whether psychiatric problems were associated with discrimination on grounds of sexuality.

Method

The Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2007 (n = 7403) was representative of the population living in private UK households. Standardisedquestions provided demographic information. Neurotic symptoms, common mental disorders, probable psychosis, suicidality, alcohol and drug dependence and service utilisation were assessed. In addition, detailed information was obtained about aspects of sexual identity and perceived discrimination on these grounds.

Results

Self-reported identification as non-heterosexual (determined by both orientation and sexual partnership, separately) was associated with unhappiness, neurotic disorders overall, depressive episodes, generalised anxiety disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorder, phobic disorder, probable psychosis, suicidal thoughts and acts, self-harm and alcohol and drug dependence. Mental health-related general practitioner consultations and community care service use over the previous year were also elevated. In the non-heterosexual group, discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation predicted certain neurotic disorder outcomes, even after adjustment for potentially confounding demographicvariables.

Conclusions

This study corroborates international findings that people of non-heterosexual orientation report elevated levels of mental health problems and service usage, and it lends further support to the suggestion that perceived discrimination may act as a social stressor in the genesis of mental health problems in this population.

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