Gay Men and Lesbians More Likely to Seek Treatment for Substance Abuse and Mental Health Issues
New research suggests that gay men and lesbians are about twice as likely to seek treatment for mental health issues and drug and alcohol abuse as their heterosexual counterparts.
Researchers from UCLA surveyed more than 2,000 California residents, and found that 48.5 percent of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals had accessed treatment in the last year, whereas 22.5 percent of heterosexuals sought treatment.
Lesbian and bisexual women were the most likely to seek treatment, which researchers said was unsurprising as women use health services more than men do. Heterosexual men had the lowest rates of treatment.
Researcher Susan Cochran said, "It is well known that health services utilization is greater among women generally. Here we have shown that minority sexual orientation is also an important consideration. Lesbians and bisexual women appear to be approximately twice as likely as heterosexual women to report having received recent treatment for mental health or substance use disorders."
"The pervasive and historically rooted societal pathologizing of homosexuality may contribute to this propensity for treatment by construing homosexuality and issues associated with it as mental health problems," she added.
