A transdiagnostic minority stress intervention for gender diverse sexual minority women's depression, anxiety, and unhealthy alcohol use: A randomized controlled trial.

Pachankis JE, McConocha EM, Clark KA, Wang K, Behari K, Fetzner BK, Brisbin CD, Scheer JR, Lehavot K. A transdiagnostic minority stress intervention for gender diverse sexual minority women's depression, anxiety, and unhealthy alcohol use: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology. 2020 Jul 1; 88(7):613-630.

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Abstract:

OBJECTIVE: To remedy the notable gap in evidence-based treatments for sexual minority women, this study tested the efficacy of a minority-stress-focused cognitive-behavioral treatment intended to improve this population's mental and behavioral health. METHOD: The intervention, EQuIP (Empowering Queer Identities in Psychotherapy), was adapted from a transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral treatment as also recently adapted for sexual minority men. Sexual minority women at risk of mental and behavioral health problems ( = 19) and expert providers with this population ( = 12) shaped the treatment's development, including by supporting its primary focus on universal and minority-stress-focused processes underlying this population's disproportionately poor mental and behavioral health. The resulting treatment was then delivered to young adult sexual minority women ( = 60; age = 25.58; 41.67% racial/ethnic minority; 43.33% transgender/nonbinary) experiencing depression/anxiety and past 90-day heavy alcohol use. RESULTS: Compared to waitlist ( = 30), participants randomized to immediately receive EQuIP ( = 30) experienced significantly reduced depression and anxiety ( = 0.85, 0.86, respectively); effects for alcohol use problems were smaller ( = 0.29) and marginally significant. In pre- to post-intervention pooled analyses, effect sizes for minority stress processes (mean = .25) and universal risk factors (mean = .48), through which the treatment was expected to work, were small and moderate, respectively, and in the expected direction. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides initial support for a minority-stress-focused transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral treatment for sexual minority women. These first results can launch exploration of other mechanisms and modalities through which to equip this population with evidence-based support. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).