Psychiatric comorbidities in children and adolescents with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria in Félix Bulnes and Dr. Exequiel González Cortés Hospitals, Chile

Introduction: Gender Dysphoria (GD) generates distress in trans or gender non-conforming individuals due to the discrepancy between their assigned and perceived gender. Its prevalence in the child and adolescent population varies between 0,6-1,7 %, with a significant increase in recent years, observed both in Chile and internationally. The objective of this research is to describe sociodemographic characteristics and psychiatric comorbidity in Boys, Girls and Adolescents with GD in Chilean hospitals. Method: quantitative, descriptive and retrospective study. The sample was 38 patients under 18 years of age with GD. The variables were analyzed: sex, gender identity, age, age at diagnosis and prevalence of comorbidities, coded according to DSM-5 and ICD-10. The analysis of measures of central tendency and dispersion was carried out with PASW Statistics 18.Results: the average age at diagnosis was 14 years. 100 % had comorbidity, the most frequent being depressive episodes (68,4 %), attempted self-elimination (50 %) and eating disorder (34,2 %). An average of 2,8 comorbidities per subject was determined. 21,1 % of the subjects presented critical psychiatric multimorbidity (four simultaneous diagnoses).Conclusions: there is a high prevalence of psychiatric comorbidities in adolescents with GD, highlighting mood disorders, anxiety, self-harming behaviors, suicide attempts and eating disorders, there being a need for a multidisciplinary approach that considers gender identity and serious comorbidities