What Do We Know About the Mental Health of Porn Performers? A Systematic Literature Review

Purpose: Much has been debated about the impact pornography has on the health of those who consume it. But how is it affecting the people starring in it? Performing in porn is a unique profession which requires a person to have sex with other—often unfamiliar—people in front of a camera for a living, comes with various kinds of stigma, and is accompanied by several health risks for professionals and amateurs. This brief report compiles available evidence on the mental health of performers in porn.Design/methodology/approach: This paper employs the PRISMA approach to systematically review existing research from health sciences and psychology to provide an overview of what is known about mental health in porn performers. Findings: Only three US studies examine the topic and none of them are recent, which may be due to porn performers being a population which has been described as hard to reach for researchers. The existing knowledge on performers’ mental health is inconclusive at best, but points toward significantly poorer mental health and higher prevalence of mental disorders in some, but not others. New general research on the topic is needed to close this gap. More importantly, granular investigation into which populations are at risk of developing poor mental health and due to which circumstances is needed as a basis to support vulnerable performers.Originality: This is the first systematic review compiling existing evidence on mental health of porn performers. An approach to address this lack of research is proposed.