Sayon Mandal
All Authors:S. Mandal, A. Chattopadhyay, S. Sarkar. All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India
Background and aims
Transgender men and women face numerous adverse health disparities in comparison to cisgender individuals, including higher rates of substance use. The present review aimed to synthesize the barriers to care of transgender substance using individuals.
Materials and methods
An electronic search was done to identify relevant articles from PUBMED database in February 2023. Cross-sectional studies, both quantitative and qualitative published in English language were included in the review. The included studies were summarized and common findings were synthesized qualitatively.
Results:
A total of 15 articles were included in the review. The sample size varied from 15 to 15,637. The most common systemic barrier is the lack of availability of interventions tailored to the needs of transgender population while the most common reported systemic barrier is that of stigma and discrimination towards this population. A few studies have compared substance use and differences in treatment seeking in transgenders to that of cisgenders. Surveys were the most common method to gather data. All the studies are from the developed world (with 2 studies from Canada and 1 from Australia and rest from USA).
Conclusion:
Well-designed culturally sensitive research focused on understanding barriers to treatment for substance use among transgender individuals is scarce, especially from developing countries. The linkage between substance use treatment services and transgender individuals begs for a reassessment with an urgent requirement of improvemtents in quality, structured coordination and addressing of prevalent stigmas to facilitate utilization of available treatment.
Keywords: Transgenders, Substance Use, Addiction, Barriers