Mental Health Diagnoses Among Transgender Patients in the Clinical Setting: An All-Payer Electronic Health Record Study

Transgend Health. 2019 Nov 1;4(1):313-315. doi: 10.1089/trgh.2019.0029. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

We performed a cross-sectional analysis of the prevalence of psychiatric diagnoses among transgender patients in clinical care using an all-payer electronic health record database. Of 10,270 transgender patients identified, 58% (n=5940) had at least one psychiatric diagnosis compared with 13.6% (n=7,311,780) in the control patient population (p<0.0005). Transgender patients had a statistically significant increase in prevalence for all psychiatric diagnoses queried, with major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder being the most common diagnoses (31% and 12%, respectively). Utilizing an all-payer database, although not without limitations, enables assessment of mental health and substance use diagnoses in this otherwise small population.

Keywords: electronic health records; mental health; psychiatric diagnosis; transgender.