Mental Health

LGBT Veterans’ Mental Health

The purpose of the project is to explore the use of tele-mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) services among LGBT veterans with diagnosed mental health conditions such as GAD, MDD, or PTSD pre and peri-pandemic in comparison to their non-queer identified counterparts.

Principal Investigator:
Joe Goulet, PhD, MS
CHIL Team
Mary Peng Research Assistant Headshot
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About

We seek to evaluate the prevalence of mental health disorders, mainly generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), major depressive disorder(MDD), and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), among LGBT veterans and their use of mental health and substance use disorder services (e.g., alcohol use disorder) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs serves over 9 million veterans annually. Approximately, 240,000 veterans self-identified as LGBT in clinical notes. Findings from the 2019-2020 NationalHealth and Resilience in Veterans Study (a nationally representative, prospective cohort survey of 3,078 veterans) revealed the prevalence of GAD positive screens increased from pre- to peri-pandemic  and was driven by an increase among veterans aged 45-64 years (, but the prevalence of MDD and PTSD positive screens remained stable.  However, members of the LGBT community are at a higher risk for experiencing mental illness, especially depression and anxiety disorders. Although the prevalence of alcohol use disorder (AUD) in veterans remained stable during the pandemic, younger age, greater pre-pandemic alcohol use severity, and COVID-related stressors were associated with incident AUD during the pandemic. Previous research found that younger LGBT veterans (< 50 years old) reported significantly more alcohol use than their older counterparts. The purpose of the project is to explore the use of tele-mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) services among LGBT veterans with diagnosed mental health conditions such as GAD, MDD, or PTSD pre and peri-pandemic in comparison to their non-queer identified counterparts.