Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T12:39:46.964Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Doctors' attitudes to male homosexuality: a survey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Dinesh Bhugra
Dinesh Bhugra*
Affiliation:
Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The topic of homosexuality has often aroused strong opinions among the public and professionals alike. In a study organised by the journal Modern Medicine in 1969, 17, 741 physicians in the USA responded to a questionnaire. Of those who stated their speciality, 8% were psychiatrists, 26% general practitioners and 10% general surgeons. Questions sought opinions on abortion, legalisation of marijuana, legalisation of homosexual practice and other topics; 92% of psychiatrists [n 2,041] were in favour of legalising homosexual practices. The three specialities least in favour were general practitioners 59% [n 6,927], general surgeons 59% [n 2,580] and orthopaedic surgeons 58% [n 731]. The sample was self-selected and this may have introduced a respondent bias. The data were collected nearly 20 years ago when homosexuality was still seen as a psychiatric illness in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manuals I and II.

Type
Articles
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 13 , Issue 8 , August 1989 , pp. 426 - 428
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1989

References

Anon (1969) The Modern Medicine poll on socio-medical issues. Modern Medicine, 37, 18–25.Google Scholar
Barr, R. F. & Catts, S. V. (1974) Psychiatric opinion and homosexuality: a short report. Journal of Homosexuality,213–215.Google Scholar
Dardick, L. & Grady, K. E. (1980) Openness between gay persons and health professionals. Annals of International Medicine, 93, 115–119.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dressler, J. (1979) Study of law students' attitudes regarding the rights of gay people to be teachers. Journal of Homosexuality, 4, 315–329.Google Scholar
Maurer, T. B. (1975) Health care and the gay community. Postgraduate Medicine, 58, 127–130.Google Scholar
Morris, P. A. (1973) Doctors' attitudes to homosexuality. British Journal of Psychiatry, 122, 435–436.Google Scholar
Morton, A. D. & McManus, I. C. (1986) Attitudes to and knowledge of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome; lack of a correlation. British Medical Journal, 293, 1212.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.