Gender identity disorder (GID) is defined as a strong and persisting cross-gender identification, associated to the discomfort with the biological sex with which subjects were born. Over the last years, the question whether GID really represents a true psychiatric disorder and if it should be included within the upcoming editions of the major diagnostic psychiatric systems or not is generating growing controversies.

Although GID represents a major challenge for the whole medical community, involves different specialists and posits relevant treatment issues, the scientific literature concerning the psychological and clinical characteristics of GID is still limited and further studies are needed in the field.

The present research is aimed to explore the psychological, personality and clinical profile of subjects with DIG.

To this aim, 100 consecutive adult patients with a standardized DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of GID, were recruited from those attending the dedicated day-care facilities of the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Bari. All included subjects underwent a psychopathological evaluation including general psychopathology (SCL-90), personality traits (MMPI-2), anxiety and depression (Zung scales for anxiety and depression, respectively) self-rated assessment.

Preliminary analyses confirmed that GID subjects did not show pathological personality traits and did not reach standardized cut-off scores for anxiety, depression, or any other general psychopathological item.

These results are in line with recent findings on the topic and support the notion that transexualism, although possibly causing negative feelings and psychological distress, might be not considered a psychiatric disorder.