Personality, impulsiveness, depression and aggression in Gender Dysphoria

Postgraduate Thesis uoadl:2885733 323 Read counter

Unit:
Κατεύθυνση Ψυχιατροδικαστική
Library of the School of Health Sciences
Deposit date:
2019-11-19
Year:
2019
Author:
Papageorgiou Ioanna
Supervisors info:
Αθανάσιος Δουζένης, Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ, Επιβλέπων
Ιωάννης Μιχόπουλος, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Παναγιώτης Φερεντίνος, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Original Title:
Προσωπικότητα, παρορμητικότητα, κατάθλιψη και επιθετικότητα σε άτομα με δυσφορία φύλου
Languages:
Greek
Translated title:
Personality, impulsiveness, depression and aggression in Gender Dysphoria
Summary:
Introduction: Gender Dysphoria (GD) is “an individual’s discontent with their assigned (or ‘natal’) gender” (Am. Psych. Assoc. 2013, p 451). Individuals with GD experience a conflict between their biological gender, which was assigned to them at birth on the basis of the appearance of their external genitalia (i.e. Sex), and the social gender with which they identify (i.e. Gender). Transgender individuals face profound social discrimination and are, quite often, victims of violent transphobic assaults.
Aim: The intent of this study is to pinpoint the levels of depression, aggression and impulsiveness, as well as the various personality disorders that transgender individuals exhibit just before the start of hormone therapy.
Sample and Methodology: The study involved 30 participants, 13 of which were transgender females and 17 of which were transgender males. The interviews were conducted at the outpatient clinic of the Psychiatric Hospital of Attica, as well as at the Sexual Disorders Department of the 1st Psychiatric Clinic of Eginition Hospital. All participants were handed the PDQ-4 Personality Questionnaire, the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (AQ), the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) and, last but not least, the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II).
Results: The majority of participants in the sample (73.3%) did not meet the minimum criteria of any personality disorder in the PDQ-4 questionnaire. However, 7 participants did score positively for at least one disorder of this nature, 5 of which meet the criteria for Paranoid Personality Disorder. As far as the Aggression Questionnaire is concerned, almost half of the sample received a considerably high score on the Verbal Aggression subscale, while 11 participants scored higher than the general public on the Anger subscale. In addition, 7 of the interviewed individuals received a higher overall score on the AGQ compared to the general population. Moreover, the Barratt-11 findings indicated normal levels of impulsiveness for most of the interviewed individuals, with a mere 4 of them scoring 72 (i.e. cut-off score) or higher on the scale, a reading that suggests high impulsiveness. Finally, a considerable number of participants received a score of 17 or higher on the Beck-II scale, a finding indicating depression.
Conclusions: Although no significant psychopathlogy is observed among the individuals who took part in the study, they do show signs of internalising the feeling of dysphoria/discontent and social discrimination, resulting in high levels of depression and anger, customarily interpreted as self-destructive, low levels of extrinsically induced aggression in relevant literature.
Main subject category:
Health Sciences
Keywords:
Gender Dysphoria, Aggression, Depression, Suicidality, Impulsiveness, Personality
Index:
No
Number of index pages:
0
Contains images:
Yes
Number of references:
82
Number of pages:
76
File:
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