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Links between chemsex and reduced mental health among Norwegian MSM and other men: results from a cross-sectional clinic survey
BACKGROUND: The use of specific drugs to facilitate, enhance or prolong sexual sessions is referred to as ‘chemsex’. The popularity of the behavior seems to be growing, but there is a paucity of information on the mental health aspects associated with chemsex and no data on chemsex from Nordic count...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7690186/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33238948 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09916-7 |
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author | Berg, Rigmor C. Amundsen, Eirik Haugstvedt, Åse |
author_facet | Berg, Rigmor C. Amundsen, Eirik Haugstvedt, Åse |
author_sort | Berg, Rigmor C. |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: The use of specific drugs to facilitate, enhance or prolong sexual sessions is referred to as ‘chemsex’. The popularity of the behavior seems to be growing, but there is a paucity of information on the mental health aspects associated with chemsex and no data on chemsex from Nordic countries. We investigated the link between chemsex and mental health among men who have sex with men (MSM) and other men in Norway. METHODS: We recruited participants from a walk-in sexually transmitted infections (STI) clinic. Participants completed a piloted, anonymous self-administered survey. It consisted of questions about men’s sociodemographic characteristics, mental health, sexual behaviors, substance use, and chemsex. The outcome we investigated was reduced mental health, measured with the validated Hopkins Symptom Check List. We obtained descriptive statistics and performed univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: 1013 (96%) of the surveys were complete and could be analysed. The mean age of the sample was 33, 51% were MSM, and 21.7% had reduced mental health. More MSM than other men engaged in chemsex in the past year (17% vs 12%). The most frequently reported chemsex drugs were cocaine and gamma hydroxybutyrate/gamma butyrolactone (GHB/GBL). Men engaged in chemsex primarily to enhance sexual pleasure and excitement, and about half reported almost never or never using condoms for chemsex. In univariate analyses, significant predictors of reduced mental health was chemsex (Odds Ratio [OR] = 1.82), being unemployed (OR = 3.54), and having sex with only women (OR = 0.58). In multivariate analyses, two variables remained significantly associated with reduced mental health: chemsex (adjusted OR = 2.18, 95%CI = 1.25–3.78) and being unemployed (adjusted OR = 4.10, 95%CI = 2.13–7.87). CONCLUSIONS: In our sample of men from an STI clinic in Norway, about 14% self-reported engaging in chemsex in the past year and about a fifth of the men had reduced mental health. Men who engaged in chemsex, which more MSM engaged in than other men, had two times greater odds of reduced mental health. These findings suggest that mental health assistance should be among the interventions offered to men engaging in chemsex. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-020-09916-7. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7690186 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-76901862020-11-30 Links between chemsex and reduced mental health among Norwegian MSM and other men: results from a cross-sectional clinic survey Berg, Rigmor C. Amundsen, Eirik Haugstvedt, Åse BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: The use of specific drugs to facilitate, enhance or prolong sexual sessions is referred to as ‘chemsex’. The popularity of the behavior seems to be growing, but there is a paucity of information on the mental health aspects associated with chemsex and no data on chemsex from Nordic countries. We investigated the link between chemsex and mental health among men who have sex with men (MSM) and other men in Norway. METHODS: We recruited participants from a walk-in sexually transmitted infections (STI) clinic. Participants completed a piloted, anonymous self-administered survey. It consisted of questions about men’s sociodemographic characteristics, mental health, sexual behaviors, substance use, and chemsex. The outcome we investigated was reduced mental health, measured with the validated Hopkins Symptom Check List. We obtained descriptive statistics and performed univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: 1013 (96%) of the surveys were complete and could be analysed. The mean age of the sample was 33, 51% were MSM, and 21.7% had reduced mental health. More MSM than other men engaged in chemsex in the past year (17% vs 12%). The most frequently reported chemsex drugs were cocaine and gamma hydroxybutyrate/gamma butyrolactone (GHB/GBL). Men engaged in chemsex primarily to enhance sexual pleasure and excitement, and about half reported almost never or never using condoms for chemsex. In univariate analyses, significant predictors of reduced mental health was chemsex (Odds Ratio [OR] = 1.82), being unemployed (OR = 3.54), and having sex with only women (OR = 0.58). In multivariate analyses, two variables remained significantly associated with reduced mental health: chemsex (adjusted OR = 2.18, 95%CI = 1.25–3.78) and being unemployed (adjusted OR = 4.10, 95%CI = 2.13–7.87). CONCLUSIONS: In our sample of men from an STI clinic in Norway, about 14% self-reported engaging in chemsex in the past year and about a fifth of the men had reduced mental health. Men who engaged in chemsex, which more MSM engaged in than other men, had two times greater odds of reduced mental health. These findings suggest that mental health assistance should be among the interventions offered to men engaging in chemsex. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-020-09916-7. BioMed Central 2020-11-25 /pmc/articles/PMC7690186/ /pubmed/33238948 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09916-7 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 Berg, Rigmor C. Amundsen, Eirik Haugstvedt, Åse Links between chemsex and reduced mental health among Norwegian MSM and other men: results from a cross-sectional clinic survey |
title | Links between chemsex and reduced mental health among Norwegian MSM and other men: results from a cross-sectional clinic survey |
title_full | Links between chemsex and reduced mental health among Norwegian MSM and other men: results from a cross-sectional clinic survey |
title_fullStr | Links between chemsex and reduced mental health among Norwegian MSM and other men: results from a cross-sectional clinic survey |
title_full_unstemmed | Links between chemsex and reduced mental health among Norwegian MSM and other men: results from a cross-sectional clinic survey |
title_short | Links between chemsex and reduced mental health among Norwegian MSM and other men: results from a cross-sectional clinic survey |
title_sort | links between chemsex and reduced mental health among norwegian msm and other men: results from a cross-sectional clinic survey |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7690186/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33238948 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09916-7 |
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