A Finnish study following up the cohort of transgender referred adolescents between 1996 and 2019, against matched controls, “showed significantly higher psychiatric morbidity.”
The study “Psychiatric Morbidity Among Adolescents and Young Adults Who Contacted Specialised Gender Identity Services in Finland in 1996–2019: A Register Study”, is published in Acta Paediatrica, a peer-reviewed monthly journal at the forefront of international paediatric research, published It is published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Foundation Acta Paediatrica, based at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.
The study’s conclusion reads “Severe psychiatric morbidity is common among gender-referred adolescents and appears to be more prevalent in those referred after the recent surge in referrals. Psychiatric needs do not subside after medical gender reassignment.”
The summary:
• Gender-referred adolescents show high psychiatric morbidity, yet gender differences and mental health trajectories after medical gender reassignment remain poorly understood.
•These adolescents had markedly higher psychiatric morbidity than controls before and after referral, with treatment needs often persisting and even intensifying after medical interventions—on some, they might even have a negative impact.
• Findings emphasise the need for thorough psychiatric assessment and ongoing treatment throughout medical gender reassignment.
The study compared the need for psychiatric treatment between the gender dysphoria subjects and the controls. “A total of 2 083 individuals under the age of 23 sought gender identity assessments, and the matched controls numbered 16 643. The mean (SD); median age of those seeking assessments was 18.5 (2.2); 19. The mean follow-up period was 5.49 years, with a median of 4.93 and a maximum of 25 years. At the time of data collection, 41.3% of the GD subjects (860/2 083) and 50.0% of the controls (8 325/16 643) were registered males. Among the GD subjects, 481 were seeking change towards female, 1 602 towards male, and 38.2% (796) underwent medical GR.
“In bivariate analyses, the GD subjects presented with a more common and more intense need for specialist-level psychiatric treatment than the controls.” [See table 1 in the study]
One key finding was an increase in psychiatric treatment among those who underwent medical gender reassignment. “The GD [Gender dysphoria] subjects, regardless of gender and GR [hormonal and surgical treatments known as medical gender reassignment] status, needed specialist-level psychiatric treatment for ≥ 2 years after the index contact more commonly than controls of either sex. From before the index date to ≥ 2 years later, considerable increases in the need for psychiatric treatment were seen among those adolescents who had undergone medical GR, particularly among those seeking change towards female, while changes among the controls and the GD subjects who did not undergo medical GR were minor.” [See Table 3 in the study]
In the discussion section, it was made clear that this study follows the pattern of other studies of co-morbidity, including local Australian ones. “In the bivariate analyses, the gender-referred adolescents had three times more psychiatric morbidity before the index date than their matched population controls. This aligns with earlier research [20]. In the follow-up, subsequent to contacting the GIS, their need for specialist-level psychiatric treatment was nearly 1.5-fold compared to that before their first visit to the GIS. In contrast, the need for treatment among the controls remained almost unchanged in follow-up. Additionally, the specialised psychiatric treatment had typically been more intensive among the gender-referred adolescents, indicating either long-standing psychiatric morbidity and/or particularly severe symptoms.”
An interesting limitation of this study was that a number of referred adolescents did not go on to GR treatment due to concerns about their co-morbidities. “A limitation of this study is that more detailed information on patients’ reasons for using the psychiatric services could not be analysed. It is also of note that the overrepresentation of prior psychiatric treatment in those who did not proceed to treatment probably reflects the fact that severe psychiatric morbidity may be a contraindication for medical GR.”
Image: Trans flags. Image Source: Socialist Alternative
Thx for the updated research. Proven zero benefit to mental health was why publicly funded ‘transition surgery’ was ceased in WA in the 80s. I’m guessing it has since been reinstated. It seems that nothing has changed since then except the politics. Spending precious health $$ for no benefit is awful. Needy albeit less political ‘ordinary folk’ miss out on the care they should have received because the money has been wasted.