Recall of Conversion Practice Exposure Tied to Mental Health Symptoms

TUESDAY, Oct. 1, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Among sexual and gender-minority people, recall of conversion practice exposure is associated with a range of mental health symptoms, according to a study published online Sept. 30 in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Nguyen K. Tran, Ph.D., from the Stanford University School of Medicine in California, and colleagues used data from the PRIDE Study to examine the association of conversion practice recall targeted at gender identity, sexual orientation, or both with current mental health symptoms among sexual and gender-minority people. A total of 6,601 participants completed a lifetime questionnaire in 2019 to 2020, and 4,440 completed a subsequent annual questionnaire in 2020 or 2021; 4,426 had all outcome data available.

Of the included participants, 43.4 percent were transgender or gender-diverse. The researchers found that 3.4, 1.0, and 1.0 percent reported sexual orientation-related conversion practice alone, gender identity-related conversion practice alone, or both, respectively. The strongest association with greater posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and suicidality symptoms was seen with recalling both forms of conversion practice (β = 2.84 and 2.14, respectively). Greater symptoms of PTSD were seen in association with recall of only sexual orientation-related conversion practice (β = 1.10), while greater depressive symptoms were seen in association with recall of gender identity-related conversion practice alone (β = 3.24). Between cisgender and transgender and gender-diverse participants, only the association for suicidality differed; higher mental health symptoms overall were seen for gender-diverse participants.

“Policies banning conversion practices are imperative and should be implemented as a structural intervention to safeguard the health and well-being of sexual and gender minority people,” the authors write.

Two authors disclosed ties to pharmaceutical companies.

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