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European Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (ESCAP) and transgender people

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The European Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (ESCAP) is a psychiatric trade group for European member countries. The organization has published policies and position statements related to psychiatric care for trans and gender diverse young people, most notably a clinically conservative 2024 statement lauded by anti-trans organizations.

ESCAP Policy Division members Maja Drobnič Radobuljac and Riittakerttu Kaltiala are both connected to anti-trans hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) and helped SEGM organize five symposia at the 2025 ESCAP conference.

Background

The roots of the organization began in October 1954, when the Union of European Paedopsychiatrists (UEP) held its first meeting in Magglingen, Switzerland. UEP was officially founded during its first international congress in Paris on September 16, 1960. Subsequent meetings took place in Rome (1963), Wiesbaden (1967), Stockholm (1971), Vienna (1975), Madrid (1979), and Lausanne (1983), where the UEP formally changed its name to the European Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (ESCAP).

Since 1982, ECSCAP published the peer-reviewed journal European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Subsequent meetings were in Hamburg (1999), Paris (2003), Florence (2007), Budapest (2009), Helsinki (2011), Dublin (2013), Madrid (2015), Geneva (2017), Vienna (2019), Maastricht (2022), and Copenhagen (2023).

Board

Policy Division

  • Chair: Prof Maja Drobnič Radobuljac – Slovenia
  • Co-Chair: Prof Robert Vermeiren – The Netherlands
  • Prof Dimitris Anagnostopoulos – Greece
  • Dr FĂŒsun Çuhadaroglu Çetin – Turkey
  • Dr Sofie Crommen – Belgium
  • Prof Stephan Eliez – Switzerland
  • Prof Sarah Hohmann – Germany
  • Prof Riittakerttu Kaltiala – Finland
  • Prof Konstantinos Kotsis – Greece
  • Prof Nermina Kravic – Bosnia-Herzegovina

2024 ESCAP policy statement

In 2024, ESCAP published a policy statement on the “urgent need for safeguarding clinical, scientific, and ethical standards” for trans healthcare for young people. As expected, ESCAP psychiatrists recommend that psychiatrists be deeply involved as gatekeepers in clinical decisions around trans healthcare for young people. ESCAP recommends

  • “a rigorous assessment of individual needs and their capacity to consent” regarding “the serious long-term consequences” before medical interventions.
  • ensuring “novel and experimental interventions related to gender dysphoria are differentiated from routine clinical treatment and are performed exclusively as part of documented observational intervention protocols or research trials.”
  • “delivering explicit attention to individuals who seek de-transition or regret their transition.”
  • “Long-term follow-up studies are urgently needed to better understand both the natural course of gender dysphoria in the absence of medical treatment and the consequences of medical transition.”
  • “not to promote experimental and unnecessarily invasive treatments with unproven psychosocial effects.”

The statement was praised by a number of anti-trans organizations, and anti-trans hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine invited lead author Maja Radobuljac to present ESCAP’s policy statement at their 2024 conference.

2025 ESCAP conference

At the ESCAP General Assembly on October 10, 2024, the ESCAP policy division announced their plans to collaborate with anti-trans hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM):

“Maja Drobnič Radobuljac, chair of the Policy Division presented the report. Since the last General Assembly, two statements had been published (as mentioned by the President in his report): one on EU mental health policy and the other on care for children with gender dysphoria. The latter especially had generated a lot of media interest in several countries and Maja had also been invited to present the statement at the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) conference this October in Athens. A track on the topic was in planning for the Strasbourg congress.”

In the summer of 2025, SEGM helped organize five symposia at the ESCAP conference in Strasbourg, France, in collaboration with the ESCAP Policy Division. The symposia were packed with prominent anti-trans activists with ties to SEGM.

Designing research in gender dysphoria in minors

Lived experiences of gender dysphoria

  • Chairs: Robert Vermeiren and Maja Drobnic Radobuljac
  • Disenchantment of Transition: Navigating Identity and Irreversible Change: Corinna Cohn
  • A road to a meaningful life: Lucian Wolf [Slovenian youth transitioner]
  • The Invisible Scars of Transition and Desistance: “Maia Poet” (Maia Abbruzzese)
  • Questions and doubts in online trans communities: Sarah Mittermaier
  • Insights from parents of trans-identified youth: “Helen” [British parent whose child reportedly â€œdesisted” from a trans identity]

Gender dysphoria in minors: Evidence for and development of treatment approaches

  • Chairs: Sarah Hohmann and Urh GroĆĄelj 
  • History and evolution of youth gender medicine: Evgenia Abbruzzese
  • The benefits and risks of childhood and adolescent social gender transition: what is the evidence? Alison Clayton
  • Current evidence of using puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones in minors with gender dysphoria: Florian Zepf
  • How do young people seeking gender reassignment fare over the long term? Riittakerttu Kaltiala
  • Developing high-quality, systematic, and transparent guidelines to inform clinical care: Ivan Florez

When evidence is not sufficient: The ethics of gender dysphoria management in minors

  • Chairs: Riittakerttu Kaltiala and Urh GroĆĄelj 
  • Medical transition: ‘Do no harm’ or ‘The customer is always right’? Moti Gorin
  • A defence of non-medical interventions for gender dysphoria: Jilles Smids
  • Applying the neuroscience of teenage decision-making in the gender clinic: Sallie Baxendale
  • The role of psychotherapy in fostering patient autonomy: Paul Garcia-Ryan
  • Psychotherapy for children with gender-related distress post-Cass Review: Anna Hutchinson

ESCAP SOA Session II – Hilary Cass: Gender identity and gender dysphoria in young people – a UK perspective : past, present and future

Cautious national developments in treatment of GD in minors

  • Chairs: Maja Drobnic Radobuljac and Riittakerttu Kaltiala
  • Medical gender reassignment in minors – why are we cautious in Finland? Riittakerttu Kaltiala
  • Youth Gender Dysphoria in Norway – The Situation Today and Thoughts on the Future: Anne WĂŠhre
  • The Current Debate on Gender Dysphoria in Minors in Germany: Problems with the New Clinical Guideline and Conceptual Aspects of a Heterogeneous Clinical Phenomenon: Florian Zepf
  • The Italian approach to gender dysphoria in minors: recent developments and future prospects: Marco Del Giudice
  • ESCAP statement on the care for children and adolescents with gender dysphoria: an urgent need for safeguarding clinical, scientific, and ethical standards Maja Drobnic Radobuljac

Selected ESCAP publications

Drobnič Radobuljac, M., Groơelj, U., Kaltiala, R., the ESCAP Policy Division [see above], the ESCAP Board [see above], Vermeiren, R., Crommen, S., Kotsis, K., Danese, A., Hoekstra, P.J., Fegert, J. M. (2024). ESCAP statement on the care for children and adolescents with gender dysphoria: an urgent need for safeguarding clinical, scientific, and ethical standards. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 33(6), 2011–2016. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-024-02440-8 Full text https://www.sgkjpp.ch/fileadmin/SGKJPP/user_upload/documents/Radobuljac_ESCAPStatementGenderdysphoria_2024.pdf

ESCAP (October 10, 2024). Draft Minutes of the ESCAP General Assembly. https://www.escap.eu/uploads/General%20Assembly%202025/final-draft-minutes-general-assembly101024v2.pdf

Resources

European Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (ESCAP) (escap.eu)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Springer (springer.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)