Sex Reassignment Treatment Does Not Improve Mental Health – Journal Issues Correction

[thinkingaboutLangCleg]

The American Journal of Psychiatry has published a correction to a study published last October, which stated that sex reassignment surgery improved the mental health of transgender patients, the Women Are Human website reports.

The study also failed to report findings that hormone treatment led to no improvements.

www.womenarehuman.com/sex-reassignment-treatment-does-not-improve-mental-health-journal-issues-correction/

Very important change in thinking.

Should also be pointed out that the original report was widely commented on by the Media. Crickets on the correction.

So basically the premise of the whole paper was originally wrong? How did it pass peer review??

This tweet thread has a link (and a key to read the pages) to the letters they published which picked the methodology apart.

twitter.com/zaneemma/status/1290022714040651776?s=21

From what I can gather the researchers made a few errors and one was that they only included patients still alive in the study (they did not check deaths for suicide or complications for instance).

The letter they published (not the the correction) did not mention that the team reanalysed and what the result was so I am glad that they mentioned it in the correction.

The letter had left me feeling that it was withdrawn, but this is a better result.

However, the abstract of the report which is the only part available to the wider public has not been changed. It still implies that Reassignment surgery helps mental health. If the authors have changed their conclusions so radically surely the abstract should also be changed.

Posted this elsewhere but I thought this was a very good article. It talks about that study and also about how life changing medical interventions for trans people have been manipulatively reframed as “care”.
newdiscourses.com/2020/08/trans-healthcare-manipulated-data-self-appointed-saviors/

A very interesting damning article on the quality of trans healthcare. Here is a link to the same article on Medium. It might be easier to read for those like me who find white print on black background difficult.
medium.com/@helenakerschner/at-what-cost-trans-healthcare-manipulated-data-and-self-appointed-saviors-dc81c4be7ae2

Thanks @334bu. I like New Discourses but I do see white stripes for about half an hour after reading one of their articles!

That is a great article by Helena Kerschner. I’ve had this exact thought so many times in the past . Who does this bias for twisting theories and logic help? It is also used to support ‘new scientific’ hypothesis with the view that it will in the future be proven so why don’t we enact the changes now! Such as sex is a spectrum. Male and female brain as a diagnosis for ‘born in the wrong body’. And the misinformation around statistics.

In the end, it doesn’t actually help anyone except some that needed to verify their own reasons for transition. it is what happens when things become taboo subjects as this has become.

May be naive as have no experience of academic research but do the people funding the research not demand proper procedures before putting the money up?

But how dreadful for people who think that the evidence is they will be happier and take action accordingly. It's real people whose lives are harmed by misinformation and inadequate support

In addition to @ZaneEmma’s thread, SEGM did a comprehensive Twitter thread on the paper:

twitter.com/segmtweets/status/1290726076705120261?s=21

If you aren’t already aware of SEGM, they are well worth having a look at:

segm.org/

Yep, I can't understand why there isn't more call for solid, quality research into all of this. Partisan studies that support pre-conceived ideas help no one in the long run.

Actually @ScrimpshawTheSecond, it is worse than that. An academic in the UK was hounded out of his job last year for trying to research this topic. He worked as a psychologist with men who had transitioned. I'm sure we had a thread on here about it.

Yes, I think I remember ... name escapes me, though.

I think the researcher was James Caspian University of Bath.

That's the one.

www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/bath-spa-university-james-caspian-2557060

www.spiked-online.com/2019/02/22/my-battle-with-the-transgender-thoughtpolice/

Currently seems to be a Crowdjustice appeal, though I can't really work out if his JR has been granted or not?

Another article with a link to several of these studies.
www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/02/60143/

To date, only one study provides good information on the function of time. Lindqvist 2017 (Sweden), the only longitudinal study of any significant length, measured health prior to treatment, and at one, three, and five years post-SRS. Once again, loss to follow-up was significant: 103 of 146 participants dropped out by year five.

Results are said to be unreliable/basically worthless when a study loses 20% of participants. 70% is nuts.

Thanks for this article. Chilling stuff.