American Psychiatric Association’s new training guide for doctors shows a ‘radical shift away from medicine and science,’ fellow professionals say.
Nearly 170 health professionals have signed an open letter to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) condemning its new “gender-affirming” care textbook as “unacceptable, unethical and unsafe.”
Their open letter to the organization appears on the website of the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism, a free speech and civil liberties watchdog group. The signatories demand that the APA “explain why it glaringly ignored many scientific developments in gender-related care and to consider its responsibility to promote and protect patients’ safety, mental and physical health.”
The letter calls for the APA to suspend publication of the textbook, “Gender-Affirming Psychiatric Care,” released on Nov. 8. The textbook is intended to be used as a teaching tool for doctors in training.
“We seek an unbiased scientific investigation and discussion of the harms and benefits of all types of care offered to those with gender-related distress,” the letter states. “Until those concerns are addressed and the textbook’s errors corrected, we call on the APA for its withdrawal.”
Within 24 hours, more than 700 additional names had been added to the list of signatories.
The APA did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Epoch Times.
Study Findings In Question
The tome’s foreword declares it to be “the first textbook dedicated to providing affirming, intersectional, and evidence-informed psychiatric care for transgender, non-binary, and/or gender-expansive (TNG) people.”
Its 26 chapters are written by 56 authors, 50 of whom either identify as transgender or don’t identify as male or female, according to the foreword.
But other health professionals are questioning the wisdom of relying on the authors’ personal experiences, just because of their gender identities.
They also object to backing up those testimonies with limited scientific studies, some with heartily disputed results.
The textbook also presents neo-Marxist critical theories focused on calling out the so-called oppression of particular identity groups, critics point out.
Yet the textbook will be seen as a gold standard of care because it comes with the considerable clout of the APA behind it, concerned doctors told The Epoch Times.
