Prevalence of Personality Disorder Diagnoses in People Referred to Specialized Gender Identity Clinics in Finland.

Abstract

A higher prevalence of personality disorder diagnoses has been found among individuals with gender dysphoria. However, previous studies on this topic have been limited and methodologically inconsistent. The object of this research was to determine the prevalence of personality disorder diagnoses in individuals requesting medical gender reassignment. A registerbased follow-up study tracked individuals who contacted the nationally centralized gender identity services in Finland in 1996-2019 (n = 3,665) and 8:1 age- and sex-matched population controls (n = 29,292). All their specialist-level psychiatric treatment contacts in 1994-2022 were identified in the National Care Register for Health Care. ICD-10 diagnoses and dates of the contacts were extracted. Among the gender dysphoria group, 15.0% (551 out of 3,665) had received a diagnosis in the personality disorder group (F60-69 excluding F64.x), while among the control subjects, 2.1% (625 out of 29,292) had received such a diagnosis.