Biblioteca Virtual en Salud

Objective@#To investigate the prevalence of depression and anxiety among transgender populations and the correlation with defense mechanism, so as to provide the evidence for improving mental health among transgender populations. @*Methods@#Transgender populations that visited Psychosexual Outpatient Department of Beijing Huilongguan Hospital for the first time from December 2020 to December 2021 were enrolled. Participants' demographics, depression, anxiety and type of defense mechanisms were collected using self-designed questionnaires, Self-rating Depression Scale, Self-rating Anxiety Scale and Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ). Factors affecting depression and anxiety were identified using a multivariable logistic regression model. @*Results@#Totally 126 transgender individuals were enrolled, including 95 men (75.40%) with a mean age of (21.53±4.55) years and 31 women (24.60%) with a mean age of (23.58±5.55) years. The prevalence of depression was 46.83% among participants, including 44.07% of participants with mild depression, 30.51% with moderate depression and 25.42% with severe depression, and the prevalence of anxiety was 26.19% among participants, including 60.61% of participants with mild anxiety, 21.21% with moderate anxiety and 18.18% with severe anxiety. The detection of depression was 54.74% among men and 22.58% among women (P<0.05), and the detection of both depression (62.79% vs. 38.55%, P<0.05) and anxiety (41.86% vs. 18.07%, P<0.05) was significantly higher among transgender populations with self-injury or suicide behaviors than among those without. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that immature defense mechanisms increased the risk of depression (OR=1.034, 95%CI 1.018-1.051) and anxiety (OR=1.031, 95%CI 1.014-1.049) among transgender populations, while mature defense mechanisms reduced the risk of depression (OR=0.887, 95%CI 0.832-0.946) and anxiety (OR=0.878, 95%CI 0.821-0.938) among transgender populations.@*Conclusions@#The prevalence of depression and anxiety was 46.83% and 26.19% among transgender populations included in this study. Mature defense mechanisms are beneficial to reduce the risk of depression and anxiety among transgender populations. Key words： transgender population depression anxiety defense mechanism