What is the Purpose of the Initial Psychiatric Evaluation of Minors with Gender Dysphoria.

The rising incidence of trans youth throughout the world and the new policy of many European countries and 25 US states that psychotherapy should be the first therapeutic response to Gender Dysphoria have made a reexamination of a comprehensive psychiatric evaluation (CPE) urgently relevant. Two conflicting views of the purpose of the CPE exist based on etiologic beliefs and convictions about the best therapeutic approach. This paper provides one clinician's synthesis of the elements, processes, goals, values, benchmarks of CPE and its usual recommendation for psychotherapy. The CPE recommended herein provides cogent hypotheses about the origins of the intrapsychic creation of a trans identity that are to be strengthened, weakened, or supplanted by explanations that emerge from psychotherapy. It also strengthens familial bonds and clarifies the intention to improve the mental health, social function, and autonomy of the minor. The inescapable ethical tensions that surround trans minor health care are discussed. The recommended CPE does not prevent subsequent medical interventions.

The Myth of "Reliable Research" in Pediatric Gender Medicine: A critical evaluation of the Dutch Studies-and research that has followed.

Two Dutch studies formed the foundation and the best available evidence for the practice of youth medical gender transition. We demonstrate that this work is methodologically flawed and should have never been used in medical settings as justification to scale this "innovative clinical practice." Three methodological biases undermine the research: (1) subject selection assured that only the most successful cases were included in the results; (2) the finding that "resolution of gender dysphoria" was due to the reversal of the questionnaire employed; (3) concomitant psychotherapy made it impossible to separate the effects of this intervention from those of hormones and surgery. We discuss the significant risk of harm that the Dutch research exposed, as well as the lack of applicability of the Dutch protocol to the currently escalating incidence of adolescent-onset, non-binary, psychiatrically challenged youth, who are preponderantly natal females. "Spin" problems-the tendency to present weak or negative results as certain and positive-continue to plague reports that originate from clinics that are actively administering hormonal and surgical interventions to youth. It is time for gender medicine to pay attention to the published objective systematic reviews and to the outcome uncertainties and definable potential harms to these vulnerable youth.

Reconsidering Informed Consent for Trans-Identified Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults.

In less than a decade, the western world has witnessed an unprecedented rise in the numbers of children and adolescents seeking gender transition. Despite the precedent of years of gender-affirmative care, the social, medical and surgical interventions are still based on very low-quality evidence. The many risks of these interventions, including medicalizing a temporary adolescent identity, have come into a clearer focus through an awareness of detransitioners. The risks of gender-affirmative care are ethically managed through a properly conducted informed consent process. Its elements-deliberate sharing of the hoped-for benefits, known risks and long-term outcomes, and alternative treatments-must be delivered in a manner that promotes comprehension. The process is limited by: erroneous professional assumptions; poor quality of the initial evaluations; and inaccurate and incomplete information shared with patients and their parents. We discuss data on suicide and present the limitations of the Dutch studies that have been the basis for interventions. Beliefs about gender-affirmative care need to be separated from the established facts. A proper informed consent process can both prepare parents and patients for the difficult choices that they must make and can ease professionals' ethical tensions. Even when properly accomplished, however, some clinical circumstances exist that remain quite uncertain.

Reflections on the Clinician's Role with Individuals Who Self-identify as Transgender.

The fact that modern patterns of the treatment of trans individuals are not based on controlled or long-term comprehensive follow-up studies has allowed many ethical tensions to persist. These have been intensifying as the numbers of adolescent girls declare themselves to be trans, have gender dysphoria, or are "boys." This essay aims to assist clinicians in their initial approach to trans patients of any age. Gender identity is only one aspect of an individual's multifaceted identity. The contributions to the passionate positions in the trans culture debate are discussed along with the controversy over the official, not falsifiable, position that all gender identities are inherently normal. The essay posits that it is relevant and ethical to investigate the forces that may have propelled an individual to create and announce a new identity. Some of these biological, social, and psychological forces are enumerated. Using the adolescent patient as an example, a model for a comprehensive evaluation process and its goals are provided. The essay is framed within a developmental perspective.

Informed Consent for Transgendered Patients.

The request of a transgendered-identified patient for psychiatric, medical, or surgical services creates ethical tensions in mental health professionals, primary care physicians, endocrinologists, and surgeons. These may be summarized as follows: Does the patient have a clear idea of the risks of the services that are being requested? Is the consent truly informed? While this question is starkly evident among cross-gender identified children contemplating puberty suppression and social gender transition and young adolescents with rapid-onset gender dysphoria, it is also relevant to young, middle-aged, and older adults requesting assistance. Many patients cannot tolerate detailed discussion of the risks. This article reviews the history of informed consent, presents the conflicts of ethical principles, and presents three categories of risk that must be appreciated before informed consent is accomplished. The risks involve biological, social, and psychological consequences. Four specific risks exist in each category. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health's Standards of Care recommend an informed consent process, which is at odds with its recommendation of providing hormones on demand. With the knowledge of these 12 risks and benefits of treatment, it is possible to organize the informed consent process by specialty, and for the specific services requested. As it now stands, in many settings informed consent is a perfunctory process creating the risk of uninformed consent.

Transitioning Back to Maleness.

Thirty-one years after living full time as a woman, a 53-year-old skilled machinist returned to have therapy with me, a psychiatrist, because of a decision to return to living as a man. As our work together continued, I suggested to this would-be published novelist that others might benefit from his experience. This led to his posting an extensive account of his life in September 2016 on Gender Trender. Now living in good mental and physical health as a male, he has given me permission to discuss his initial presentation, my understanding of his motivations, and to reflect on the broader questions that his life rises for the field of transgenderism. This report describes regret, defenses against regret, and a dramatic 3-day catharsis followed by the patient's first loving relationship. He now ironically reflects that he escaped from the sensed inauthenticity of his youthful maleness only to create a felt inauthentic feminine social psychological state. The professional literature about the long-term outcome of the transgendered who do not have surgery is largely nonexistent in English. Anecdotal accounts, however, are readily accessible on the Internet.

Ethical Concerns About Emerging Treatment Paradigms for Gender Dysphoria.

The increasing incidence of requests for medical services to support gender transition for children, adolescents, and adults has consequences for society, governmental institutions, schools, families, health-care professionals, and, of course, patients. The sociological momentum to recognize and accommodate to trans phenomena has posed ethical dilemmas for endocrinologists, mental health professionals, and sexual specialists as they experience within themselves the clash between respect for patient autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and informed consent. The larger ethical clashes are cultural and therefore political. There is a distinct difference between pronouncements that represent human rights ideals and the reality of clinical observations. Some interpret this clash as a moral issue. This article delves into these tensions and reminds apologists from both passionate camps that clinical science has a rich tradition of resolving controversy through careful follow-up, which is not yet well developed in this arena.

Reflections on the Legal Battles Over Prisoners with Gender Dysphoria.

Momentum has shifted in the legal battles over the provision of sex reassignment surgery (SRS) for male prisoners. In 2015, two court decisions granted the operation and were not appealed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The author, who has participated in some of these battles as an expert, analyzes the strengths and limitations of the medical illness, developmental, and minority rights paradigms for Gender Dysphoria that are used to reach psychiatric opinions about medical necessity. Courts are influenced by the recommendation of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) that inmates should be treated as are individuals in the community. This is a compassionate assertion, but one not fully informed by practical experience with SRS among prisoners. Most inmates requesting SRS through litigation are serving very long or life sentences. Their backgrounds are quite unlike most transgendered individuals encountered in the community. If long-term prisoners are provided with SRS, the study of their adaptations may enable future decisions to be based on adaptation data rather than the competing opinions of experts. Gathering such data may be challenged as an experiment, however, and viewed as unethical.

Towards a compendium of the psychopathologies of love.

Adults are commonly preoccupied with their love lives and in psychotherapy they often express frustrations with themselves and their partners. Ironically, patients' preoccupations with the processes of love have not created many professional deliberations on the nature of love and mechanisms of its subversion. This essay describes the converging influences that may explain the professional avoidance of love. It then describes the reasons to try to create a compendium of clinically apparent impediments to loving. The pathologies of love are divided into three categories: (1) characteristics that impede the formation of a sexual adult attachment; (2) patterns that diminish the index person's lovability to the partner; (3) processes that deteriorate the index person's ability to continue to love the partner. The compendium seems to present several important utilities. It clarifies the pathogenesis of some mental suffering. It defines a distinct, more relevant focus to psychotherapy. It makes clear that a better understanding of love's subtle processes of evolution is needed. It invites further refinement of both healthy and problematic love processes.

Evolution of a remedial CME course in professionalism: addressing learner needs, developing content, and evaluating outcomes.

INTRODUCTION: Scant information is available about the nature of the professional violations resulting in referral of physicians for remedial continuing medical education (CME). The CME program at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine has developed the Intensive Course in Medical Ethics, Boundaries, and Professionalism (medical ethics course) for physician referrals due to ethical breaches. In this report, the authors present 7 years of data regarding the type of behavior that resulted in course referral as well as information regarding course and outcome evaluation development and participant demographics. METHODS: The medical ethics course has been designed in consultation with licensure agencies to address the learning needs of physicians with problems in the areas of boundary maintenance and ethics. Teaching methods and outcome evaluations include lectures, case discussions, multiple-choice question tests, skill practice sessions, and writing a reflective essay based on the participants' ethical lapse. Information is also gathered regarding participant demographics, training, and practice characteristics. RESULTS: Between September 2005 and February 2012, 358 learners participated in the course. The average age was 52 years and 73% were board certified. Of the 269 physicians who wrote a reflective essay, the reasons for referral included prescribing of controlled drugs, sexual boundary issues, providing services to family or friends, not maintaining proper medical records, and billing issues. DISCUSSION: This report outlines the strategies used by CWRU to develop remedial CME courses using the medical ethics course as an example for course and outcome evaluation development. This is the first report characterizing the type and frequency of the medical ethics violations that result in mandatory participation in remedial CME.

Efficacy and safety of dapoxetine for the treatment of premature ejaculation: integrated analysis of results from five phase 3 trials.

INTRODUCTION: Dapoxetine has been evaluated for the on-demand treatment of premature ejaculation (PE) in five phase 3 studies in various populations worldwide and has recently been approved in several countries. AIM: To present integrated efficacy and safety data from phase 3 trials of dapoxetine. METHODS: Data were from five randomized, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies conducted in over 25 countries. Men (N=6,081)≥18 years who met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition, text revision criteria for PE; four studies required a baseline intravaginal ejaculatory latency time (IELT) of ≤2 minutes. Dapoxetine 30 and 60 mg on demand (prn; 1-3 hours before intercourse) were evaluated for either 12 or 24 weeks in four studies; one study evaluated dapoxetine 60 mg daily (qd; included in safety assessments only) or prn for 9 weeks. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: End points included stopwatch-measured IELT, Premature Ejaculation Profile (PEP) items, clinical global impression of change (CGIC) in PE, and adverse events (AEs). RESULTS: Average IELT (mean [standard deviation], geometric mean [standard error]) increased from baseline (across groups, 0.9 [0.49] minutes, 0.8 [1.01] minutes) to a significantly greater extent with dapoxetine 30 (3.1 [3.91] minutes, 2.0 [1.03] minutes) and 60 mg (3.6 [3.85] minutes, 2.3 [1.03] minutes) vs. placebo (1.9 [2.43] minutes, 1.3 [1.02] minutes; P<0.001 for all) at week 12 (geometric mean fold increase, 2.5, 3.0, and 1.6, respectively). All PEP items and CGIC improved significantly with both doses of dapoxetine vs. placebo (P<0.001 for all). The most common AEs included nausea, dizziness, and headache, and evaluation of validated instruments demonstrated no anxiety, akathisia, suicidality, or changes in mood with dapoxetine use and no discontinuation syndrome following abrupt withdrawal. CONCLUSIONS: In this diverse population, dapoxetine significantly improved all aspects of PE and was generally well tolerated.

Sexual education for psychiatric residents.

OBJECTIVE: The authors seek to promote sexuality curriculum development in departments of psychiatry. METHODS: The authors first focus on educational philosophy about what residents can be taught about sexual topics and then provide numerical and narrative resident evaluation data following a 6-month, half day per week rotation in a sexuality clinic. RESULTS: Curricula should begin by clarifying the dimensions of individual sexuality, conceptualizing the idea of the couple as the unit for understanding partnered sexual problems, providing opportunities to grow comfortable listening to sexual stories, and approaching etiology using the First Principle of Clinical Sexuality. Departments of psychiatry can evolve new approaches to teaching these topics with diverse methods including seminars, periodic lectures, case conferences, assigned books and journal articles, and discussion of the sexual implications of the patients cared for on other clinical rotations. CONCLUSION: More needs to be done nationally to prepare psychiatric residents to assess and treat sexual disorders, concerns, and problems. Curricular efforts need not require a sexuality expert. Existent faculty should be encouraged to develop their institution's initial approach, which inevitably will evolve toward greater comprehensiveness.

What is sexual addiction?

Married men labeled as sexual addicts seek help after being discovered to have had broken monogamy rules for sexual behavior through their use of masturbation, pornography, cybersex, commercial sex involvement, paraphilic pursuits, or affairs. This study analyzed the sexual patterns and dynamics of 30 men who presented to 1 clinician between 2005 and 2009. Their important differences were captured by a 6-category spectrum: (a) no sexual excess beyond breaking the spouse's restrictive rules (n = 2), (b) discovery of husband's longstanding sexual secrets (n = 5), (c) new discovery of the joys of commercial sex (n = 4), (d) the bizarre or paraphilic (n = 7), (e) alternate concept of normal masculinity (n = 5), and (f) spiraling psychological deterioration (n = 7). Only the men with a spiraling psychological deterioration-about 25% of the sample with sexual issues-could reasonably be described as having a sexual addiction. This group experienced significant psychological failures before the onset of their deterioration. Another 25% were adequately defined as paraphilic. Half of the sample was not adequately described using addiction, compulsivity, impulsivity, and relationship incapacity models. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for DSM-5 and treatment.