Life Intricacies of Sex Workers: An Integrative Review on the Psychiatric Challenges Faced by Sex Workers

Abstract

Background: Sex work remains a contentious and marginalized aspect of society, with sex workers facing a myriad of challenges that impact their mental health and well-being. Objective: This review explores, reviews, and examines the psychiatric challenges encountered by sex workers daily and seeks to identify key gaps in the current research and highlight areas of future intervention and support. Methodology: This study followed five stages of the integrative review suggested by Whittmore and Knafl. The identification of the problem, literature search, data evaluation, data extraction, analysis, and presentation of results were the five stages of the integrative review that were carried out. This review examined English-language publications from 2010 to 2023 that discussed the mental health issues that sex workers experienced. Furthermore, this study excluded publications that were published before 2010, articles written in languages other than English, publications whose complete texts could not be retrieved, and works that did not address the mental health problems that sex workers encounter. For their initial search, the writers employed electronic databases like PubMed, Scopus, Psych-Info, Google Scholar, Science Direct, and Medline. The search terms were as follows: ‘sex work’, ‘sex workers’, ‘prostitution’, ‘mental health’, ‘psychiatric challenges’, ‘stigma’, Risk factors’, and ‘barriers’. Results: Following the critical appraisal, out of 150 studies, only 34 studies were chosen for analysis. Using Cresswell’s Tesch method, two themes emerged from this study: (1) mental health challenges faced by sex workers and (2) primary risk factors contributing to their mental health challenges. Conclusions: Moreover, addressing the psychiatric challenges faced by sex workers requires a multifaceted approach that acknowledges the intersectionality of factors influencing sex workers’ mental health outcomes, thus also highlighting the imperative for tailored interventions and support systems to promote their well-being.