title: Symptom profiles of gender dysphoric patients of transsexual type compared to patients with personality disorders and healthy adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Gender dysphoric patients of transsexual type (TS) have been considered to have severe psychopathology. However, these notions have a weak empirical documentation.
  
  
  METHODS
  TS patients (n = 86), patients with personality disorder (PD, n = 98) and adult healthy controls (HC, n = 1068) were compared by means of the Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90). All patients were diagnosed by structured interviews (Axis I, II and V of DSM-III-R/IV). PD patients were further characterized according to the LEAD-standard.
  
  
  RESULTS
  TS patients scored significantly lower than PD patients on the Global Symptom Index and all SCL-90 subscales. Although the TS group generally scored slightly higher than the HC group, all scores were within the normal range.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  TS patients selected for sex reassignment showed a relatively low level of self-rated psychopathology before and after treatment. This finding casts doubt on the view that transsexualism is a severe mental disorder.
authors.affiliation: University of Oslo, Aker Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Norway.
authors.forename: I R
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: Haraldsen
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Dahl
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014189:Transsexualism / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*