LOS ANGELES: Pharmacists are more likely to take men more seriously than woman when they are at risk of suicide, according to new WA research that exposes gender bias when it comes to healthcare.

The study, led by The University of Western Australia, presented 291 Australian pharmacists with hypothetical scenarios involving male and female patients displaying signs of suicidality then assessed their responses.

The pharmacists routinely felt empathy for female patients expressing suicidality but went on to offer them a mix of both helpful and harmful support.

However, pharmacists were less likely to respond emotionally to male patients but more likely to take the issue seriously and offer them more helpful support.

Recommended mental health support included non-judgemental listening, open discussion, coming up with a safety plan, and identifying appropriate support systems.

Harmful advice included reinforcing stigma such as by using shame and guilt to deter suicide, avoiding the issue, and blaming the patient.

Dr Carpini said the study’s findings reinforced previous research showing gender bias in healthcare across the board — a problem that can lead to negative patient outcomes.

“Our findings show this bias can be even more insidiously subtle and complex than previously thought,” he said.

“The differences we saw reflected subtle but persistent gender-based stereotypes about how men and women should behave and express their emotions.”

UWA co-author Deena Ashoorian said the findings have important implications for training and practice, given the fact pharmacists were often frontline responders due to their easy accessibility.

“Pharmacists play a critical role in the community as the first point of contact for many people in crisis, and as the gatekeepers to potentially lethal means of suicide,” she said.

“We know that nearly four in 10 Australian pharmacists have encountered someone they believed was at risk of suicide in the past year, as per our previous research.

“Alarmingly though, pharmacists don’t intervene at all in about 25 per cent of these cases — a gap that could mean the difference between life and death.

“Training pharmacists to recognise their potential unconscious biases and the various ways in which such biases manifest can help them respond more effectively and better support community health.”