Gay and bisexual men have a higher chance of acquiring HIV if they have mental health problems according to a new study from the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. For the study, published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, the researchers looked at how five conditions — depression, alcohol abuse, stimulant use, multi-drug abuse and exposure to childhood sexual violence — affect men’s risk of acquiring HIV. They analyzed data on 4,295 men who reported having sex with men within the previous year. The participants were asked about depressive symptoms, heavy alcohol and drug use and childhood sexual abuse; the participants did not have HIV when they entered the study between 1999 and 2001; they then completed a behavioral survey and HIV test every six months for four years. Overall, 680 men completed the study. Those who reported the most mental health issues were the most likely to become HIV positive by the end of the study. They were also most likely to report unprotected anal sex and unprotected anal sex with a person who has HIV.
Author’s note: According to the CDC 1 in 5 American gay and bisexual men are HIV+. From this study, we can extrapolate that most of those who are living with HIV, have significant mental health issues; therefore, the rate of mental illness in the gay male population is abnormally high; according to Susanne Babbel, Ph.D., M.F.T., a psychologist specializing in trauma and depression; adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse exhibit symptoms that can extend far into adulthood and include: suicidality, substance abuse, reenactment of the traumatic event, hyper-sexualized or sexually reactive behavior, and or issues with promiscuity. And, this problem of promiscuity is not exclusive to those who eventually become infected with HIV; as the CDC reports: between 2012 and 2013, the number of reported P&S syphilis cases increased 10.9%. In 2013, 75% of the reported P&S syphilis cases were among men who have sex with men (MSM); in addition, men who have sex with men are 17 times more likely to develop anal cancer than heterosexual men. Therefore, what the gay male community is dealing with is a serious and untreated problem of sexual abuse survivors trying to cope with the trauma of their past; from the medical (specifically the mental health) community – they receive no help; in 1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) removed homosexuality as a mental disorder from the APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-II). As a result, those who were sexually abused as children, usually by males - 94% of the perpetrators of sexual abuse against boys are men – hold fairly steady to a classic pattern of: gender identity disorder brought on by trauma, sexual confusion, confirmation by society into a homosexual orientation, exploration, and promiscuity resulting in the curious phenomena of rampant clinical depression; followed by sexually transmitted diseases.
For more information on male victims of sexual abuse, see: