Bisexual female students more likely to be depressed, study shows

A Dalhousie University nursing graduate from P.E.I. says her recent research shows bisexual female students are more likely to be depressed and turn to binge drinking and drugs than other students.

As part of her master's thesis, Joelle Monaghan examined a 2012 study involving 7,000 male and female students from around the region.

She focused on 350 bisexual female students in that group. She foundbisexual women are often marginalized not just by heterosexuals, but even by those within the LGBT community, she said, who may feel that bisexuals are in denial about their true homosexuality.

"It can perpetuate feelings of isolation or discrimination and stigma," said Monaghan. "So they may turn to substances to deal with those feelings.

"Then when you add that extra layer of being an undergraduate student maybe you're away from home for the first time, you're not under the watchful eye of your parents for the first time. A lot more risk-taking behaviours."

If doctors want to give the best care, Monaghan suggested, they should start asking patients about their sexual orientation and put it on the patient's chart, so that a woman who is going in just for a regular checkup or pap smear does not have to continuously come out to her health care provider.

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