Study: Openly Gay Men Less Likely to Be Depressed Than Heterosexuals

Here's a link to a summary of the study and author's thoughts:
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/01/29/study-openly-gay-men-less-likely-to-be-depressed-than-heterosexuals

So come out, be happy and healthy!

Here's the original study link:
http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/content/early/2013/01/18/PSY.0b013e3182826881.abstract

Methods The study included 87 healthy participants (mean [SD] age = 24.6 [0.6] years; LGB n = 46, 43% women; and heterosexual n = 41, 49% women). Diurnal cortisol sampled at five time points was averaged for 2 days. AL indices were based on an algorithm incorporating 21 biomarkers representing neuroendocrine, immune/inflammatory, metabolic, and cardiovascular functioning. Psychological measures were assessed with well-validated questionnaires.

Results Between-group results revealed no significant differences in symptoms of anxiety and burnout, nor among diurnal cortisol levels between sexual orientations. By contrast, gay/bisexual men unexpectedly had lower depressive symptoms (p = .003) and AL levels (p = .043) compared with heterosexual men. Within-group results revealed that disclosed LGBs had fewer psychiatric symptoms (p values

One HUGE caveat about this finding: it applies only to a people in their mid-20s. I wouldn't be surprised if the trend starts to reverse itself with increasing age.

You would be correct to suspect. I find myself subject to bouts of mild depression and moodiness that I did not suffer in my mid-twenties, nothing crippling mind you, but like a mild grade toothache it hums in the background.

Makes me a more bitchy guy than I used to be.

That is the burden of getting older in a starkly supercial culture. LOL.

But enough about my gay dinosaur status. :whistle:

I will likely dig into this study and examine the methodology later. It is heartening to think that today's LGBTs are much more socially well adjusted than we were in my youth.

~J

I am not sure about this one, i fight deep depression daily, and have attempted suicide in the past, i think that we may be the same, heterosexuals do feel some of the same feelings we do, except as gay men, we are more attached to our emotions and our feelings can get hurt easily. maybe its just me :/

While it provides some insight, I do think it's perhaps too generalised a statement to make. Personality types, age, living environment, psychological conditions, health... all of those play very important roles in depression.

Overall, it makes sense that someone who lives an honest and open life would be a happier person. Except if you live in a country where you can be sentenced to death for it, then I would suggest staying in the closet for the time being.

OK, so, as a scientist, I'm going to weigh in a bit more on this. You have to be very deliberate when reading scientific studies. The careless way the media represents them annoys me to no end.

1. Yes, it is generalized. All scientific studies of human beings have to be, because they sample a population and describe the average behavior and distribution.

2. Just because your own personal observations do not match that found by a scientific study does not make the study suspect. This study is comparing two AVERAGE behaviors. It does not mean that ALL gay men are happier than ALL straight men. There are two distributions, and the average of the gay one was higher than the straight one in this study.

3. The study only sampled people in their early and mid 20s. Given that it was conducted at a university, it is a safe bet that these were college students. Also, if you go to the original study, it shows the authors were all based in Montreal, Canada. Therefore, the findings of this study are also likely limited to college students in a large, liberal metropolitan area.

Taken together, what this means is that the study has simply showed that gay men in their 20s in the area of Montreal, Canada, are significantly less depressed than their straight counterparts. That's it; nothing more and nothing less. The study itself is one data point and, as always, more work needs to be done to get a better, more detailed picture of sexuality and depression.

But... but... it's science! From scientists in (I can only imagine) brilliant lab coats.

Joking aside, you make a very valid point. As a man of science you no doubt understand that studies are notorious for carving out a small slice of like-attributed people and using them to extrapolate information about the human race in particular. Bad science is bad.

That said, from personal experience, I have noticed that openly LGBT folks tend to be, if not less depressed, at least less repressed and thus free of a certain weight that a lot of closeted folks carry around with them.