Depression amongst gay men soared during Covid restrictions

DEPRESSION among gay and bisexual men soared during the pandemic, new research has found.

The closure of gay bars and young men having to return to live with parents during lockdown were said to have contributed to the spike.

Health experts are calling for urgent action after the study found depression was 44 per cent higher for gay and bisexual men, while anxiety was 26% higher.

The research found the huge rise was also fuelled by mental health inequalities, stigma and negative social attitudes.

Researchers based at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) are calling for improvements to services for gay and bisexual men in Scotland to be made.

Results from a pre-pandemic mental health study showed depression was already six times higher in gay and bisexual men and anxiety was four times higher.

GCU Health Psychology Reader and Principal Investigator of the studies, Dr Jamie Frankis, said: “Our latest study, funded by the CSO, really set alarm bells ringing because we found that depression was 44% higher and anxiety was 26% higher for gay and bisexual men in Scotland during Covid-19, compared to men in the wider population.

“The reason for this is that gay and bisexual men had the stresses that everybody else had during the pandemic but they also experienced specific minority-status stresses.

“Things like the gay bars being closed meant that there was nowhere for them to access their community and meant some had no safe gay spaces where they could go.

“Younger men said that they had to return to live with their parents but if they weren’t ‘out’ or if their parents were not accepting of their sexual identity that became problematic.

“Results of a pre-covid mental health study have also just been published which showed that, before the pandemic, levels of depression among gay and bisexual men were six times higher than men in the wider society and levels of anxiety were four times higher.

“These pre-covid, and during Covid, findings paint a very bleak picture and are a real cause for concern.”

The pandemic study also found more than half of the gay and bisexual men who suffered depression and anxiety were undiagnosed and least likely to seek mental health support.

Dr Frankis said: “It is important to highlight that levels of other psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder were the same as other men in Scotland in the pre-covid study.

“That led us to conclude that stigma, negative social attitudes and minority stress have caused these shocking levels of anxiety and depression among gay and bisexual men in Scotland.

“When we found out that gay and bisexual men suffered massively higher rates of depression and anxiety during the pandemic, we then wanted to find out how they sought mental health support to identify areas for change and improvement, particularly their use of online services.

“We found out that gay and bisexual men who had not had depression or anxiety diagnosed were the least likely to seek mental health support because it was a new problem.

“We asked the men why they were not accessing support available to them. Firstly, they said they didn’t know which organisations they could seek help from.

“Secondly, they said normally they would approach gay organisations but they didn’t go to them because they thought that they would focus only on their sexual health rather than mental health.”

The research also found gay and bisexual men had problems with their use of mental health support apps such as Headspace, Woebot and Insight Timer.

Dr Frankis said: “We found that they had a fundamental misunderstanding about how these apps would actually work. They said they wanted a quick fix like we use paracetamol for a headache. That’s not how they work.

“They take regular long-term use to be of any benefit.”

Depression was 44% higher for gay and bisexual men during the pandemic