Psychiatric disorders in the U.S. transgender population

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Psychiatry
• Health Disparities

Background:

• Mental health conditions are a significant concern within the U.S. healthcare system.
• Understanding disparities in mental disorder diagnoses among different populations is crucial for targeted interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the prevalence and odds of mental disorder diagnoses at discharge in U.S. transgender hospital encounters compared to cisgender hospital encounters.
• To analyze nationally representative data to identify disparities in mental health diagnoses.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the National Inpatient Sample (2007-2014) to identify transgender and cisgender inpatient encounters.
• Performed univariate and multivariable analyses to compare mental disorder and comorbid medical diagnoses.
• Controlled for medical comorbid diagnoses in multivariable analyses to assess odds ratios.

Main Results:

• Transgender hospital encounters showed a higher prevalence of mental disorder diagnoses (77% vs. 37.8%).
• Significantly higher odds of all mental disorder diagnoses (OR=7.94), anxiety (OR=3.44), depression (OR=1.63), and psychosis (OR=2.46) were observed in transgender encounters.
• Transgender encounters with mental disorders had a higher prevalence of chronic medical comorbidities.

Conclusions:

• Findings indicate a high prevalence and significantly increased odds of mental disorder diagnoses in the transgender population compared to the cisgender population.
• This study underscores significant mental health disparities affecting transgender individuals in U.S. hospital settings.