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Lethal Lust: Suicidal Behavior and Chemsex—A Narrative Review of the Literature

Chemsex is described as the use of certain drugs—commonly methamphetamine, gamma-butyrolactone (GBL)/gammahydroxybutyrate (GHB), and mephedrone—before or during planned sexual activity primarily among men who have sex with men (MSM). Evidence shows that MSM who engage in chemsex are at increased ris...

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Autores principales: Strasser, Martina, Halms, Theresa, Rüther, Tobias, Hasan, Alkomiet, Gertzen, Marcus
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9954759/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36831717
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13020174
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author Strasser, Martina
Halms, Theresa
Rüther, Tobias
Hasan, Alkomiet
Gertzen, Marcus
author_facet Strasser, Martina
Halms, Theresa
Rüther, Tobias
Hasan, Alkomiet
Gertzen, Marcus
author_sort Strasser, Martina
collection PubMed
description Chemsex is described as the use of certain drugs—commonly methamphetamine, gamma-butyrolactone (GBL)/gammahydroxybutyrate (GHB), and mephedrone—before or during planned sexual activity primarily among men who have sex with men (MSM). Evidence shows that MSM who engage in chemsex are at increased risk of physical harm, such as sexually transmittable infections (STIs), and are more likely to experience mental health symptoms. To further assess this, we reviewed the recent literature to evaluate whether the psychological impact of chemsex behavior includes suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts. Pubmed/MEDLINE was searched for articles reporting suicidal ideation and behavior among chemsex users with the terms “chemsex”, “sexualized drug use”, “suicide”, and “mental health”. Twelve articles (three case reports and nine cross-sectional studies) were included in the final narrative review. Overall, we retrieved mixed results regarding the relationship between chemsex practice and suicidality outcomes. Considering the inhomogeneous nature of the studies, the findings indicate that suicidality could be an issue of concern among MSM in general but among chemsex users in particular. Possible risk factors for suicidality among chemsex participants may include adversities experienced due to one’s sexual orientation and an increased risk for HIV and other STI infections and the resulting negative impact on mental well-being. These aspects warrant further investigations.
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spelling pubmed-99547592023-02-25 Lethal Lust: Suicidal Behavior and Chemsex—A Narrative Review of the Literature Strasser, Martina Halms, Theresa Rüther, Tobias Hasan, Alkomiet Gertzen, Marcus Brain Sci Review Chemsex is described as the use of certain drugs—commonly methamphetamine, gamma-butyrolactone (GBL)/gammahydroxybutyrate (GHB), and mephedrone—before or during planned sexual activity primarily among men who have sex with men (MSM). Evidence shows that MSM who engage in chemsex are at increased risk of physical harm, such as sexually transmittable infections (STIs), and are more likely to experience mental health symptoms. To further assess this, we reviewed the recent literature to evaluate whether the psychological impact of chemsex behavior includes suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts. Pubmed/MEDLINE was searched for articles reporting suicidal ideation and behavior among chemsex users with the terms “chemsex”, “sexualized drug use”, “suicide”, and “mental health”. Twelve articles (three case reports and nine cross-sectional studies) were included in the final narrative review. Overall, we retrieved mixed results regarding the relationship between chemsex practice and suicidality outcomes. Considering the inhomogeneous nature of the studies, the findings indicate that suicidality could be an issue of concern among MSM in general but among chemsex users in particular. Possible risk factors for suicidality among chemsex participants may include adversities experienced due to one’s sexual orientation and an increased risk for HIV and other STI infections and the resulting negative impact on mental well-being. These aspects warrant further investigations. MDPI 2023-01-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9954759/ /pubmed/36831717 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13020174 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Strasser, Martina
Halms, Theresa
Rüther, Tobias
Hasan, Alkomiet
Gertzen, Marcus
Lethal Lust: Suicidal Behavior and Chemsex—A Narrative Review of the Literature
title Lethal Lust: Suicidal Behavior and Chemsex—A Narrative Review of the Literature
title_full Lethal Lust: Suicidal Behavior and Chemsex—A Narrative Review of the Literature
title_fullStr Lethal Lust: Suicidal Behavior and Chemsex—A Narrative Review of the Literature
title_full_unstemmed Lethal Lust: Suicidal Behavior and Chemsex—A Narrative Review of the Literature
title_short Lethal Lust: Suicidal Behavior and Chemsex—A Narrative Review of the Literature
title_sort lethal lust: suicidal behavior and chemsex—a narrative review of the literature
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9954759/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36831717
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13020174
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