Leo Sher, M.D., Timothy R. Rice, M.D.

The importance of men’s mental health requires special recognition.  For example, more than 1 in 10 men between the ages of 20 and 44 in the United States take some form of prescription antidepressant, antipsychotic, ADHD drug, or anxiolytic.  These numbers are up 43% from 2001. 

Men experience physical and sexual abuse, and may be victims of domestic violence. Northern Ireland police records for the 2012 listed 2,525 male victims of domestic violence. A study in the U.S. showed that about 7% of men were physically assaulted by a wife or female cohabitant.

Men frequently suffer from adversity and experience psychological difficulties regardless of how physically strong or financially well off they are. Over the past several decades three to four times more men have taken their own lives than women, and at no point during this period has the rate of suicide in women been higher than that of men. This raises questions about why we are not thinking about the psychological needs of men and boys.

There are many more data suggesting that men’s mental health needs more consideration.
 
The World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) has recently approved the creation of the Task Force on Men’s Mental Health. The task force will concentrate on issues which are important for men’s health as well as for the general public health and greater society.

The WFSBP Task Force on Men’s Mental Health:

Chair:  Leo Sher (USA)

Co-Chair: Zoltan Rihmer (Hungary)

Secretary: Timothy R. Rice (USA)

Members:

Mikkel Arendt (Denmark)

M. Dolores Braquehais (Spain)

Javier Didia-Attas (Argentina)

Masahito Fushimi (Japan)

Julia Golier (USA)

Jose de Leon (USA)

Shih-Ku Lin (Taiwan)

J. John Mann (USA)

Anne-Maria Möller-Leimkühler (Germany)

Alexander Neumeister (USA)

Jorge Ospina-Duque (Colombia)

Carlos Roncero (Spain)

Wolfgang Rutz (Sweden)

Robert G. Stern (USA)

Nestor Szerman (Spain)