German male mental health ‘often ignored’

The most common psychological problem among men is depression, followed by addiction and panic attacks, the study conducted by sociologists at Munich University concluded.

Although 3.6 million German men – that’s nine percent – have been diagnosed with depression, the real figure is likely to be much higher, the study authors said.

The rapidly increasing rate of men missing work due to psychological problems, as well as an increase in the rate of suicide among men, could point to a high number of men with severe undiagnosed problems, the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper reported on Friday.

The authors of the study said that up to 90 percent of men with psychological problems remain untreated – and that this is because they fear being stigmatized.

“When men are in psychological need, they are often told to simply pull themselves together and things will be alright,” Matthias Stiehler, one of the authors, said.

He added that the measures on offer to help those in psychological need were often only designed to help women and called for more to be done to help men.

The Local/hc