Transgender and Gender Diverse Patients in Intensive Mood Disorder Treatment: A Comparative Examination of Clinical Presentation and Treatment Outcomes

Abstract

Individuals who are transgender and gender diverse (TGD) are more likely to suffer from and to seek mental health services for mood disorders. Some literature suggests that TGD individuals, because of pervasive and systemic minority stress, may have more complex clinical presentations (i.e., psychiatric conditions and severity of symptoms) and may benefit from empirically based treatments to a lesser degree than their cisgender peers. However, research has yet to examine individuals who are TGD receiving treatment in specialized, intensive mood disorder treatment despite the propensity for them to be diagnosed with and treated for mood disorders. Using a sample of 1,326 adult patients in intensive mood disorder treatment (3.8% TGD), the clinical presentation and treatment outcomes were compared between patients who are TGD and cisgender. Contrary to previous research, TGD patients were largely similar if not healthier than their cisgender counterparts, including similar depression severity, quality of life, emotion dysregulation, and behavioral activation, and less severe rumination at admission. Despite similar to better reported mental health symptoms, TGD patients were diagnosed with more psychiatric conditions overall, including greater prevalence of social anxiety and neurodevelopmental diagnoses. Those who are TGD did not experience attenuated treatment response as predicted. Findings suggest that patients in intensive mood disorder treatment who are TGD may be more resilient than previously assumed, or supports may have increased to buffer effects of stigma on mental health, and emphasize the need to exercise discretion and sensitivity in diagnostic practices to prevent over-diagnosis and pathologizing of TGD individuals.