LGBT Health journal presents in-depth perspective on gender diagnoses

LGBT Health (http://www.liebertpub.com/lgbt), a new peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com), launching in fall 2013, presents a timely and in-depth perspective on several key controversies surrounding gender diagnoses. This month the American Psychiatric Association will publish the 5th version of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5). DSM-5 includes important revisions to the controversial diagnosis formerly known as Gender Identity Disorder (GID), in which an individual's physical make-up does not align with his or her inner experience of gender. Some had argued that this diagnosis was not only stigmatizing but that it did not meet criteria for classifying it as a mental disorder. The DSM-5 Workgroup chose to retain the disorder classification but to change the name of the disorder to Gender Dysphoria to reduce the stigma associated with the diagnosis. The article "Controversies in Gender Diagnoses (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/lgbt.2013.1500)" by Jack Drescher, MD, is the first article to be published in LGBT Health, and is available free online on the LGBT Health (http://www.liebertpub.com/lgbt) website.

Dr. Drescher draws on his extensive expertise and experience participating not only on the DSM-5 Sexual and Gender Identity Workgroup but also on the WHO's Working Group on Sexual Disorders and Sexual Health, which is currently preparing a new edition of its International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). He identifies several key controversies in gender diagnoses, how they were handled by the DSM-5 and how they may be handled in the ICD-11. He examines the dilemma faced by both work groups as to how to reduce the stigma of having a mental disorder diagnosis while retaining the means to facilitate access to care. He explains how the DSM-5 handled this dilemma and discusses alternative resolutions presently being considered for the ICD-11. In addition he addresses the controversies currently surrounding the diagnosis and treatment of prepubescent children with Gender Dysphoria.

"Given the complexity of the issues with which both the DSM-5 and ICD-11 work groups have had to grapple, and the level of interest in, and controversy surrounding, the gender diagnoses, we are very fortunate to have Dr. Drescher, a member of both workgroups, shed light on their deliberations, their proposed solutions, and areas where there is currently little consensus," says Editor-in-Chief, William Byne, MD, PhD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (New York, NY).