Psychiatry and Neurology

LGBTQ individuals seeking mental or behavioral health care may present with similar complaints and stressors as their heterosexual counterparts, yet LGBT persons experience poorer mental health outcomes than socioeconomically-matched heterosexual and cisgender persons. LGBTQ mental health disparities do not arise from having same-sex sexual or gender nonconforming behaviors, thoughts, or desires but rather may be attributed to other factors. Health professionals must understand how stigma and discrimination inscribed in laws, social policies, and societal beliefs contribute to these disparities and to difficulties faced by individual patients. This chapter discusses the historical pathologization of homosexuality and gender discordance, the minority stress model, mental health disparities and common diagnoses, and neurology and psychiatry of HIV.