The<unk>  centers around the concept of<unk><unk><unk><unk>  (ROGD), proposed to be a subtype of<unk><unk>  caused by peer influence and social contagion. It has never been recognized by any major professional association as a valid mental health diagnosis, and its use has been discouraged by the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, and other medical organizations due to a lack of reputable scientific evidence for the concept. Lisa Littman, as an adjunct assistant professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, created the term based on an online survey of parents on three anti-transgender websites who believed that their teenage children had suddenly manifested symptoms of<unk><unk>  and begun identifying as transgender simultaneously with other children in their peer group. Littman speculated that<unk><unk>  of<unk><unk>  could be a "social coping mechanism" for other disorders. In August 2018, Littman (then an assistant professor of the practice at the Brown University School of Public Health) published a descriptive study in PLOS One. Criticism of the study's methodology and conclusions was voiced by some clinicians, researchers, and transgender activists, and two weeks after publication, PLOS One responded by announcing a post-publication review of the paper. On the same day as PLOS One announced its post-publication review, Brown University retracted its press release promoting the study.<unk>  surrounding the paper grew as articles and opinion pieces, both critical and supportive, were published in mainstream media discussing concerns about the study's methodology and the validity of its hypotheses, as well as issues of academic freedom. In March 2019, the journal concluded its review and republished Littman's revised and corrected version. Other researchers have since remarked on a much increased incidence of youth seeking care for<unk><unk> , the cause of which remains to be established. In 2021, the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association cosigned a statement with 120 other medical organizations calling for ROGD not to be used in diagnostic or clinical settings due to a lack of reputable scientific evidence for the concept. The statement also criticized the proliferation of misinformation supporting the concept of ROGD targeted at parents and clinicians and the concept's use to justify laws targeting the rights of transgender youth in the United States. A November 2021 study published in the Journal of Pediatrics analyzed clinical data of teenagers seen in<unk>  clinics and found no support for ROGD being a distinct phenomenon. The authors found no link between more recent<unk>  of<unk><unk>  and other mental health problems, and no link between recent<unk>  and a high level of support from online or transgender friends.
Rapid-onset gender dysphoria controversy
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder controversies
Controversies about psychiatry
Sex differences in psychology
Relationship obsessive–compulsive disorder
Biopsychiatry controversy
Music-specific disorders
Self-experimentation in medicine