Mental health literacy and the experience of depression in a community sample of gay men.

BACKGROUND: Gay men are at higher risk of suffering from a variety of psychiatric disorders, yet the mental health literacy of this population has remained largely unknown.

METHODS: In 2007 and 2011, surveys were conducted among gay men in Geneva, Switzerland, recruited by probability-based time-space sampling. Based on a case vignette of a man with major depression, respondents were asked a series of questions about labelling, perceived risk, and help-seeking beliefs. Men meeting caseness for major depression were asked open questions about perceived causes and additional help-seeking/self-help.

RESULTS: Among the 762 respondents, 14.7% met diagnostic criteria for major depression (MDD) in the past 12 months. The vignette was labelled depression by 44.1% of the entire sample, and 61.9% of the men with MDD. Discrimination (33.2%), acceptance or rejection by others (21.4%), and loneliness (24.9%) were the most common reasons given for greater susceptibility among gay men, yet men with MDD reported problems with love/relationship (32.5%) and work (28.9%) as the most common perceived causes of recent depression, and problems with love/relationship (21.9%), accepting one's homosexuality (21.1%), and family (20.2%) at initial outset. The highest proportions of gay men rated non-medical options such as a close friend (91.6%), relaxation exercises or meditation (84.4%), and physical activity (83.5%) as being helpful for the depression vignette.

LIMITATIONS: No probes used for open questions, and findings generalizable only to gay men in the sampling scheme.

CONCLUSIONS: There are many commonalities in labelling, perceived causes, and help-seeking with general populations, but also numerous specificities in mental health literacy and experience among gay men.