Utility of the MMPI-2 in Assessing Gender Dysphoric Patients

• Published in: Journal of personality assessment Vol. 75; no. 2; pp. 268 - 279
• Main Authors: Miach, Patricia P., Berah, Ellen F., Butcher, James N., Rouse, Steve
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia, PA Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc 01-10-2000; Taylor & Francis
• Subjects: Adult; Affect; Biological and medical sciences; Gender dysphoria; Gender Identity; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2; MMPI; Patients; Personality Disorders - diagnosis; Personality tests; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics. Diagnostic aid systems; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Self Concept; Techniques and methods; Transsexualism - psychology; Mood disorder; Human; Personality test; Transsexualism; Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory; Depression; Male; Psychometrics; Personality; Revised drafting; Gender identity; Symptomatology; Mental disorder; Inventory
• ISSN: 0022-3891; 1532-7752
• DOI: 10.1207/S15327752JPA7502_7

We compared MMPI-2 (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989) profiles of 2 groups of adult biological men requesting sex reassignment surgery; 1 group was diagnosed with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev. [DSM-III-R]; American Psychiatric Association, 1987) transsexualism and the other with gender identity disorder of adolescence and adulthood, nontranssexual type (GIDAANT). Although the mean profiles for the transsexual group did not demonstrate any psychopathology, the GIDAANT group showed moderate psychopathology. A cluster analysis indicated that 85% of the transsexual group showed low psychopathology and 47% of the GIDAANT group showed severe psychopathology. Neither the MMPI-2 results nor the DSM-III-R clinical evaluation support the conclusion of many authors that transsexualism is associated with severe personality disorder; rather, the data indicate that transsexualism and other gender identity disorders without persistent wish for sex reassignment differ significantly in degree of psychopathology.