The number of complaints and depression among transgender Americans has doubled since 2014: study

Rates of self-reported mental health problems and depression among U.S. adults who identify as transgender or gender diverse (TGD) more than doubled between 2014 and 2022, an analysis of federal health data shows.

During that time, “a record number of enacted laws have threatened the rights and protections of TGD people, including limiting access to gender-affirming care and allowing discrimination in public accommodations,” according to a team of researchers led by health care policy researcher Michael Liu. , from Harvard Medical School.

The findings are published in the news JAMA Internal Medicine.

Liu’s team tracked survey data from the federal government’s ongoing Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which tracks the self-reported physical and mental health of U.S. adults over time.

The analysis began in 2014, the first year gender identity was added to the survey, and tracked data through 2022.

Liu’s team found that the “prevalence of frequent mental health problems increased from 18.8% in 2014 to 38.9% in 2022” among transgender or gender-diverse people.

In contrast, the increase in mental distress among cisgender people was less steep: from 11.2% to 15.5%.

Depression rates among transgender and gender-diverse adults also rose sharply between 2014 and 2022 — more than doubling from 19.7% to 51.3%, Liu’s group found. During the same period, the rate of depression among cisgender adults increased only slightly, from 18.6% to 21.1%.

Even physical health was affected: during the study period, the percentage of transgender/gender diverse adults who rated their health as ‘fair’ or ‘poor’ went from 26.6% to 35.1%, while that number remained stable at just over 17 %. % among cisgender people.

In an editorial in a linked journal, three health policy experts say Harvard’s findings are not unexpected.

Dr. Carl Streed of Boston University, Kellan Baker of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, and Arjee Javellana Restar of the University of Washington School of Public Health in Seattle point to hundreds of state laws that “explicitly target transgender and non-transgender binary populations” proposed in 2023 and 2024.

“These efforts to exclude transgender and non-binary people from society threaten the well-being of the more than 1.6 million transgender and non-binary people in the US,” the experts said.

The increasing stigma means transgender and gender-diverse Americans face daily mental health attacks, including intentional pronoun misuse, issues surrounding restroom access, workplace discrimination and even acts of violence, the editorial said.

Things probably won’t get better anytime soon.

“Given the US sociopolitical trajectory regarding increasing discrimination and political attacks against transgender and non-binary people, we can expect to see a deterioration in mental health in these populations in the near future,” the experts said.

Health Day 2024. All rights reserved.