UW Medicine Study re gender-inclusive care and depression

[ScreamingMeMe]

Jesse Singal has already done some work into this study, which claimed that "gender inclusive" care led to decreasing rates of depression (will dig that out in a bit). Now another journalist, Jason Rantz, has done some investigation:

twitter.com/jasonrantz/status/1562243973032419328?t=qnz6LzDAnzH3Fey1QSFWFQ&s=19

"EXCLUSIVE: UW Medicine falsely claimed a study showed gender-inclusive care led to rates of depression plummeting.

I obtained emails showing that staff didn't correct false reporting about the study because it received such positive coverage."

mynorthwest.com/3602854/rantz-despite-concerning-trans-study-uw-kept-quiet-because-of-positive-coverage/

After @jessesingal published "pretty concerning claims" of the study, calling out the false publicity materials, one UW staffer said she wouldn't drive traffic to it with internal promotion. It was that troublesome.

But... /2

mynorthwest.com/3602854/rantz-…

The staff was happy with the positive news coverage that the false claims received. So, they weren't eager to correct it.

One of the study's authors even said she would be fine NOT clarifying the errors at all, if it led to too much attention. /3
mynorthwest.com/3602854/rantz-…

I believe the entire study was agenda-driven, which explains why the UW Medicine comms team didn't reach out to any media outlets that got the story wrong -- based on the false press materials.

I share some thoughts - and more details - below.

mynorthwest.com/3602854/rantz-despite-concerning-trans-study-uw-kept-quiet-because-of-positive-coverage/

It should be noted that @KING5Seattle knows their story is inaccurate, but they still haven't corrected it. I think it's intentional: they like the false "results" better. They also knew I was writing this story days ago since I reached out to the news director for comment.

Seattle Children's Hospital and University of Washington refused to correct misleading report that claimed puberty blockers reduced depression in transgender teens because it had received such good press from mainstream media

www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11149331/amp/University-Seattle-Childrens-Hospital-refused-correct-misleading-report-puberty-blockers.html

Researchers Found Puberty Blockers And Hormones Didn’t Improve Trans Kids’ Mental Health At Their Clinic. Then They Published A Study Claiming The Opposite. (Updated)

A critique of Tordoff et al. (2022)
Jesse Singal
Apr 6

jessesingal.substack.com/p/researchers-found-puberty-blockers?s=r

How interesting! It is like that study from Yale (I think) which then had to print a correction stating the evidence from Sweden actually was very overstated and the conclusions were therefore not evidenced at all.

There is a pattern forming here and it is rather disturbing.

According to that the authors of the study also contacted the comms team to say that even the change in wording from depression ‘plummeted’ to ‘decreased’ was not accurate either, and their suggestion was that the data suggested PBs may ‘mitigate’ depression and stressed the importance of difference between saying the group on PBs did not show the same degree of deterioration in MH as those not taking them vs PBs reduced depression.

If that is true then further exploration of why PBs do and do t do as well as how that balances against the risks of taking them is crucial.

So why are they being ignored by comms team? (I think we know why).