We’ve all heard about the higher incidence of mood disorders (depression, anxiety etc.) in women and chances are we’ve all seen this reflected in the dominance of female clients who present seeking help but what’s this really telling us?  Many of us are aware that men are more likely to ‘self-medicate’ with alcohol and other substances, as a maladaptive way of dealing with the psychological stressors, however, the lesser talked about fact is that substance induced (i.e. cannabis etc.) psychotic disorders are significantly more prevalent in men and occur at younger ages than women (Bogren et al 2010) and substance use & abuse is commonly not sufficiently explored or adequately diagnosed in general practice amongst male patients.  Oh dear…what else do we need to know?

The results of a large English survey on mental health and help-seeking behaviour published in 2005 found that men were less likely than women to say that they would seek help (OR=0.78, 95% CI 0.72–0.88,P<0.001). The preferred reported source of help was friends or relatives with 63.1% saying they would seek help from this source.  In addition to this and somewhat, more alarmingly, the WHO reports that “doctors are more likely to diagnose depression in women compared with men, even when they have similar scores on standardised measures of depression or present with identical symptoms.”  https://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/genderwomen/en/ So even when males do finally present for help, often, the mental health problem is being overlooked or missed.

One theme that keeps coming up in research is the ongoing associated stigma for men with mental health issues.  A study published in 2008, conducted by two National Institute of Mental Health postdoctoral fellows in mental health care policy at Harvard Medical School, investigated the effect of gender, race and socioeconomic status on psychosocial barriers to mental health care and found that white males were most likely to mistrust the mental health care system and were also likely to perceive mental illness as a stigma and therefore avoid formal mental health care https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080908125123.htm

In my practice we actually have a high proportion of males presenting with mental health concerns, admittedly, our practice specialises in this area so that may be a key reason for this and in many instances the appointment has been instigated or driven by a concerned mother, a wife etc.  Regardless, I’ve found that many men really struggle & it’s made somewhat more complicated by the role they are expected to play in society. I think the key message is not to reinforce gender based stereotypes on our patients, have the confidence to explore mental health with male patients, their vulnerabilities, concerns etc. as much as you would your female patients. Make sure you thoroughly assess their substance use and take heart there is a lot we can do for these individuals, the first step is recognising there’s a problem.

Rachel will be speaking on Young White Men & the Mental Health Challenges They Face at the MINDD International Forum in Sydney June 14-15th.  For more information and bookings check out: https://mindd.org/forum/mind2014.html