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Mental health professionals view about the impact of male gender for the treatment of men with depression - a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: The underestimation of depression among men may result from atypical depression symptoms and male help-seeking behaviour. However, higher suicide rates among men than among women indicate a need for gender-specific services for men with depression. In order to develop gender-specific ser...

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Autores principales: Stiawa, Maja, Müller-Stierlin, Annabel, Staiger, Tobias, Kilian, Reinhold, Becker, Thomas, Gündel, Harald, Beschoner, Petra, Grinschgl, Achim, Frasch, Karel, Schmauß, Max, Panzirsch, Maria, Mayer, Lea, Sittenberger, Elisa, Krumm, Silvia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7268222/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32493263
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-020-02686-x
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author Stiawa, Maja
Müller-Stierlin, Annabel
Staiger, Tobias
Kilian, Reinhold
Becker, Thomas
Gündel, Harald
Beschoner, Petra
Grinschgl, Achim
Frasch, Karel
Schmauß, Max
Panzirsch, Maria
Mayer, Lea
Sittenberger, Elisa
Krumm, Silvia
author_facet Stiawa, Maja
Müller-Stierlin, Annabel
Staiger, Tobias
Kilian, Reinhold
Becker, Thomas
Gündel, Harald
Beschoner, Petra
Grinschgl, Achim
Frasch, Karel
Schmauß, Max
Panzirsch, Maria
Mayer, Lea
Sittenberger, Elisa
Krumm, Silvia
author_sort Stiawa, Maja
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The underestimation of depression among men may result from atypical depression symptoms and male help-seeking behaviour. However, higher suicide rates among men than among women indicate a need for gender-specific services for men with depression. In order to develop gender-specific services, it is essential to examine professionals’ attitudes towards men’s depressive symptoms and treatment needs as well as barriers to and facilitators of treatment. This study examined gender-specific treatment needs in male patients and treatment approaches to male patients from a professional perspective. METHODS: Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 33 mental health professionals (MHPs) from five German psychiatric institutions. The study assessed the characteristics and attributes of male patients with depression risk factors for the development of depression among men, their condition at the beginning of treatment, male patients’ depressive symptoms, the needs and expectations of male patients, the importance of social networks in a mental health context, and MHPs’ treatment aims and treatment methods. Transcripts were analysed using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: The professionals’ reference group of male patients were men who were characterised in accordance with traditional masculinity. Attributes reported as in line with this type of men were late initiations of inpatient treatment after crisis, suicidal ideation or attempted suicide, and high expectations towards treatment duration, success rate in recovery and therapeutic sessions. In contrast, male patients who deviate from these patterns were partially described with reference to female stereotypes. Professionals referred to psychosocial models in their explanations of the causes of depression and provided sociological explanations for the development of masculine ideals among men. The consequences of these for treatment were discussed against the background of normative expectations regarding the male gender. From the professionals’ point of view, psychoeducation and the acceptance of depression (as a widespread mental illness) were the most important goals in mental health treatment. CONCLUSIONS: In order to improve mental health among men, gender-specific services should be offered. Awareness of the role of gender and its implications on mental health treatment should be an integral part of MHPs’ education and their daily implementation of mental health treatment practices.
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spelling pubmed-72682222020-06-07 Mental health professionals view about the impact of male gender for the treatment of men with depression - a qualitative study Stiawa, Maja Müller-Stierlin, Annabel Staiger, Tobias Kilian, Reinhold Becker, Thomas Gündel, Harald Beschoner, Petra Grinschgl, Achim Frasch, Karel Schmauß, Max Panzirsch, Maria Mayer, Lea Sittenberger, Elisa Krumm, Silvia BMC Psychiatry Research Article BACKGROUND: The underestimation of depression among men may result from atypical depression symptoms and male help-seeking behaviour. However, higher suicide rates among men than among women indicate a need for gender-specific services for men with depression. In order to develop gender-specific services, it is essential to examine professionals’ attitudes towards men’s depressive symptoms and treatment needs as well as barriers to and facilitators of treatment. This study examined gender-specific treatment needs in male patients and treatment approaches to male patients from a professional perspective. METHODS: Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 33 mental health professionals (MHPs) from five German psychiatric institutions. The study assessed the characteristics and attributes of male patients with depression risk factors for the development of depression among men, their condition at the beginning of treatment, male patients’ depressive symptoms, the needs and expectations of male patients, the importance of social networks in a mental health context, and MHPs’ treatment aims and treatment methods. Transcripts were analysed using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: The professionals’ reference group of male patients were men who were characterised in accordance with traditional masculinity. Attributes reported as in line with this type of men were late initiations of inpatient treatment after crisis, suicidal ideation or attempted suicide, and high expectations towards treatment duration, success rate in recovery and therapeutic sessions. In contrast, male patients who deviate from these patterns were partially described with reference to female stereotypes. Professionals referred to psychosocial models in their explanations of the causes of depression and provided sociological explanations for the development of masculine ideals among men. The consequences of these for treatment were discussed against the background of normative expectations regarding the male gender. From the professionals’ point of view, psychoeducation and the acceptance of depression (as a widespread mental illness) were the most important goals in mental health treatment. CONCLUSIONS: In order to improve mental health among men, gender-specific services should be offered. Awareness of the role of gender and its implications on mental health treatment should be an integral part of MHPs’ education and their daily implementation of mental health treatment practices. BioMed Central 2020-06-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7268222/ /pubmed/32493263 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-020-02686-x Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research Article
Stiawa, Maja
Müller-Stierlin, Annabel
Staiger, Tobias
Kilian, Reinhold
Becker, Thomas
Gündel, Harald
Beschoner, Petra
Grinschgl, Achim
Frasch, Karel
Schmauß, Max
Panzirsch, Maria
Mayer, Lea
Sittenberger, Elisa
Krumm, Silvia
Mental health professionals view about the impact of male gender for the treatment of men with depression - a qualitative study
title Mental health professionals view about the impact of male gender for the treatment of men with depression - a qualitative study
title_full Mental health professionals view about the impact of male gender for the treatment of men with depression - a qualitative study
title_fullStr Mental health professionals view about the impact of male gender for the treatment of men with depression - a qualitative study
title_full_unstemmed Mental health professionals view about the impact of male gender for the treatment of men with depression - a qualitative study
title_short Mental health professionals view about the impact of male gender for the treatment of men with depression - a qualitative study
title_sort mental health professionals view about the impact of male gender for the treatment of men with depression - a qualitative study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7268222/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32493263
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-020-02686-x
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