Nearly one-third of transgender and nonbinary people will attempt suicide at least once in their lives, according to a comprehensive review published this week in JAMA Psychiatry.
“Quantifying the mental health burden facing trans and nonbinary people is an important step with important implications for both delivery of care and shaping health care policy,” wrote Kirsten J. Hainey, M.P.H., of the University of Glasgow in Scotland, and colleagues.
Hainey and colleagues conducted an umbrella review that investigated the prevalence of mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions in trans and nonbinary people ages 18 and older. They included 24 reviews and meta-analyses that analyzed 754 primary studies published between 1983 and 2022.
The most common issues addressed in the reviews were suicide related. The lifetime prevalence of suicidal ideation among transgender and nonbinary people was 50%, the lifetime prevalence of suicide attempt was 29%, and the lifetime prevalence of non-suicidal self-injury was 47%. Compared with cisgender people, trans and nonbinary people were about 3.5 times as likely to experience any of these above events. There was little difference between trans men and trans women for lifetime prevalence of suicidal ideation or attempts.
Additionally, trans and nonbinary people were more likely than cisgender individuals to experience an eating disorder, experience post-traumatic stress disorder, and be diagnosed with autism. The prevalence of autism ranged widely in the included reviews, which the authors suggested may be due to changes in diagnostic criteria and awareness across the review time frame.
The review identified what the authors referred to as “critical evidence gaps.” Robust prevalence estimates were missing for common disorders such as depression and anxiety, for example. These gaps “should be urgently addressed to ensure [trans and nonbinary people’s] mental health needs can be addressed by evidence-informed policy and practice.”
For related information, see the Psychiatric News article “Executive Orders Have Chilling Effect on Transgender Community.”
(Image: Getty Images/iStock/Chalffy)
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