Risk behaviors for sexually transmitted infections among men with mental disorders

Objective: Risk behaviors for sexually transmitted infections among men wit h mental disorders who were using outpatient psychiatric services and among men who had never been treated for a mental disorder were compared, Method s: Ninety-two men with major mental disorders, including schizophrenia, bip olar disorder, and mood disorders, were individually matched for age and et hnicity with 92 men who had never been treated for mental illness. All subj ects completed a semistructured interview about specific risk behaviors for sexually transmitted infections that they may have engaged in during the p receding year Results: The 49 patients with mental disorders who had been s exually active in the preceeding year were significantly more likely than t he 78 sexually active comparison subjects to ha ve known their sexual partn er for less than one day and to report having been pressured into unwanted sexual intercourse. A strong but not significant trend was found for sexual ly active patients to have had sex with a male partner and sex with a drug user Overall, the patients with mental disorders answered ten questions mea suring AIDS knowledge questions significantly less well than the comparison subjects. Conclusions: The results underscore the priority for developing programs for preventing risk behaviors for sexually transmitted infections among men with mental disorders.