Finlanda: rata mai mare a sinuciderilor la tinerii din clinici de gen, explicată de morbiditatea psihiatrică

Mortalitatea din toate cauzele și prin sinucidere în rândul adolescenților și tinerilor adulți care au contactat serviciile specializate de identitate de gen din Finlanda în 1996–2019: un studiu pe registre

Studii de cohortă și registre Sănătate mintală și suicid Autism, traumă și afecțiuni concomitente

Authors: Sami-Matti Ruuska, Katinka Tuisku, Timo Holttinen, Riittakerttu Kaltiala
Journal: BMJ Mental Health
Year: 2024
Source: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjment-2023-300940

Summary

Finnish researchers used national records to follow every young person (under 23) who came to Finland's two gender identity services between 1996 and 2019, comparing them with matched peers from the general population. Suicide was rare but more common in the gender-referred group (7 of 2,083, or 0.3%, versus 0.1%). Once the researchers accounted for how much specialist psychiatric care each person had received, the difference could easily have been chance, and those who did or did not have hormones or surgery did not clearly differ from controls. The authors conclude that mental illness, not gender dysphoria itself, drives suicide risk, and that transition has not been shown to prevent suicide. Because the result rests on a handful of deaths, and psychiatric care may partly result from gender distress, it is suggestive rather than proof.

Key findings

Studiul a inclus toți cei 2.083 de persoane sub 23 de ani trimise la serviciile de identitate de gen din Finlanda din 1996 până în 2019 și 16.643 de colegi potriviți; vârsta medie la trimitere era de 18,5 ani, iar oamenii au fost urmăriți în medie 6,5 ani.
Au fost 55 de decese în total, 20 dintre ele sinucideri; 7 sinucideri (0,3%) în grupul trimis pentru gen și 13 (0,1%) printre colegi.
Luând în calcul doar sexul și anul nașterii, grupul trimis pentru gen avea o rată a sinuciderii de aproximativ 4 ori mai mare decât colegii.
După luarea în calcul și a cantității de îngrijire psihiatrică specializată, diferența de sinucidere s-a micșorat la sub 2 ori și ar putea fi ușor întâmplătoare; decesele din toate cauzele nu au fost diferite.
71% dintre tinerii trimiși pentru gen văzuseră specialiști psihiatri (26% de peste 100 de ori) față de 26% dintre colegi; îngrijirea psihiatrică foarte intensă a fost legată de un risc de sinucidere de aproximativ 11 ori mai mare.
38% primiseră hormoni sau chirurgie; riscul lor de sinucidere nu era mai mare decât al colegilor, în timp ce cei fără tratament aveau un risc de aproximativ 3 ori mai mare, ceea ce autorii au considerat că ar putea fi întâmplător la testul lor strict.
Autorii concluzionează că tranziția nu a redus decesele prin sinucidere și că găsirea și tratarea bolii mintale este prioritatea.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: All-cause and suicide mortalities of gender-referred adolescents compared with matched controls have not been studied, and particularly the role of psychiatric morbidity in mortality is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To examine all-cause and suicide mortalities in gender-referred adolescents and the impact of psychiatric morbidity on mortality. METHODS: Finnish nationwide cohort of all <23 year-old gender-referred adolescents in 1996-2019 (n=2083) and 16 643 matched controls. Cox regression models with HRs and 95% CIs were used to analyse all-cause and suicide mortalities. FINDINGS: Of the 55 deaths in the study population, 20 (36%) were suicides. In bivariate analyses, all-cause mortality did not statistically significantly differ between gender-referred adolescents and controls (0.5% vs 0.3%); however, the proportion of suicides was higher in the gender-referred group (0.3% vs 0.1%). The all-cause mortality rate among gender-referred adolescents (controls) was 0.81 per 1000 person-years (0.40 per 1000 person-years), and the suicide mortality rate was 0.51 per 1000 person-years (0.12 per 1000 person-years). However, when specialist-level psychiatric treatment was controlled for, neither all-cause nor suicide mortality differed between the two groups: HR for all-cause mortality among gender-referred adolescents was 1.0 (95% CI 0.5 to 2.0) and for suicide mortality was 1.8 (95% CI 0.6 to 4.8). CONCLUSIONS: Clinical gender dysphoria does not appear to be predictive of all-cause nor suicide mortality when psychiatric treatment history is accounted for. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: It is of utmost importance to identify and appropriately treat mental disorders in adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria to prevent suicide.

Conclusion

Clinical gender dysphoria does not appear to be predictive of all-cause or suicide mortality when psychiatric treatment history is accounted for. The authors state that suicide in this population appears to be explained by psychiatric morbidity, that medical gender reassignment did not show an impact on suicide risk, and that the risk of suicide attributed to transgender identity or gender dysphoria per se may have been overestimated. It is of utmost importance to identify and appropriately treat mental disorders in adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria to prevent suicide, and health policies should ensure professionals receive accurate information along these lines.

Methodological limitations

Very few deaths: Only 7 suicides happened in the gender-referred group, and 55 deaths overall. The figures are very uncertain, and the comparison by treatment is far too small to be reliable.
May have adjusted away a real link: Psychiatric care may partly result from gender dysphoria rather than being a separate cause. Accounting for it could hide a real link. The authors admit this, and critics (such as TransLucent and epidemiologist Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, 2024) argue it undermines the main conclusion.
Timing of psychiatric care mixed up: Psychiatric visits were counted over the whole follow-up, including after referral and close to death, not just before. This blurs whether mental illness was a separate cause or part of the path to suicide.
Rough measure of mental illness: Mental illness was measured by the number of specialist visits, not by diagnoses, severity or past self-harm, so it is an imperfect stand-in.
Unusually strict test: The authors used a stricter-than-usual bar to call the higher suicide risk in untreated youth (about 3 times) possibly chance. Sullins (2024, an unreviewed commentary) argues that by normal standards this finding should not be dismissed.
Treated people were selected: Doctors chose who got hormones or surgery. In Finland's cautious system, people with more serious mental health problems may have been less likely to get treatment, so differences by treatment cannot be read as cause and effect.
No split by birth sex: The records do not track changes in registered sex, so results could not be split by birth sex, even though suicide rates differ by sex.
Few other factors, short follow-up: Peers were matched only on age and home town. Social support, drug and alcohol use and income were not accounted for, and 6.5 years is short for studying deaths.
May not apply elsewhere: Results apply to young people referred to clinics in Finland and may not apply to other countries or to trans-identifying youth who never seek services.
Author's views: The senior author leads teen gender identity work at Tampere University Hospital, one of the two services studied. She is a well-known critic of affirmation-first care, served on the Cass Review advisory board and has given keynote talks at SEGM (a group critical of youth gender medicine).

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Summary

Key findings

Abstract

Conclusion