Jasmin Tuladhar/Pahichan – It is estimated that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are more prone to depression than other homosexual people. Depression may become a serious health condition, and can lead to suicide. The objective of the study was to identify the prevalence and level of depression among LGBTI, and to identify the association between depression and demographic variables.Non probability convenient sampling technique was used to select the sample from Blue Diamond Society of Kathmandu valley. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information on socio-demographic and standard questionnaire was developed using the tool prescribed by CESD-R (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale Revised, 2004) to know the level of depression among LGBTI.

The obtained information was analyzed by using descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean, median, standard deviation whereas analysis of variance test was used to find out association between level of depression and selected demographic variables. There was no any association between socio- demographic variables and level of depression. The findings revealed that 44.5% of the respondent was trans women, 31.9% were gay, 10.1% of the respondents were trans men, 8.4% were bisexual and 5% of the respondent were lesbian and the mean age was 28.79+6.867 years.

One third of the respondent had obtained primary level education. The finding of the study showed that more than half of the respondent (65.6%) had prevalence of depression where as 21% had major depressive disorder, 20.2% had probable major depressive disorder and 24.4% had possible major depressive disorder. Based on the findings it can be concluded that there is high prevalence of depression among LGBT so further counseling, interaction programme and mental health programme might be conducted to prevent depression.