Aim: To establish any differences between patients with and without a diagnosis of personality disorders, being treated in a secure inpatient service for offenders with intellectual disability (ID) in the UK. Method: A cohort study involving a selected population of people with ID and offending behaviours. Results: The study included a total of…

Background: Dialectic behaviour therapy (DBT) has been widely used with individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder who exhibit severe emotional and behavioural dysregulation. There is a paucity of research in assessing the effectiveness of DBT with forensic clients with intellectual disability (ID). Methods: This pilot study aims…

Background: Approximately one-eighth of the population will have DSM-IV borderline intelligence. Various mental disorders and social disability are associated with it. Method: The paper uses data (secondary analysis) from a UK-wide cross-sectional survey of 8450 adults living in private households. Data were collected on psychiatric disorders,…

Background: The link between aggression and mental disorders has been the focus of diverse studies in persons with and without intellectual disabilities (ID). Because of discrepancies in the finding of studies in persons with ID to date, and because of differences in research design, instruments used and the population studied, more research is…

Background: Contrasting views exist over the association of intellectual disability (ID) and criminal offending. This nationwide study attempts to shed further light to expand understanding to substantiate the relation between socio-demographic characteristics, psychiatric co-morbidity and criminal behaviour among the Finnish forensic population…

Background: Antipsychotic medications have been used extensively to treat aggressive behaviours in persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) when the main psychiatric diagnoses given to them in the past were schizophrenia, childhood psychoses and ID with behaviour problems. Today, antipsychotics are still estimated to comprise 30-50% of all the…

Background: A sample of community-based service users with intellectual disability (ID) was re-examined after 5 years to determine the impact of a diagnosis of personality disorder (PD). Methods: Seventy-five of the original 101 participants were followed up. Of these, 21 people had a PD identified during the original study. Results: Compared with…

Background: Although gender differences in psychopathology among the general psychiatric population appear to be well documented, such differences have been either ignored or inconsistently investigated among people with intellectual disability (ID). Methods: The study examined psychiatric co-morbidity in 295 men and 295 women with ID and…

Background: The purpose of this paper is to describe long-term outcomes for patients discharged over a 12-year period from a medium secure service for people with intellectual disabilities (ID). Methods: A cohort study using case-notes analysis and a structured interview of current key informants. Results: Eleven per cent of the sample was…

Background: Problems associated with psychiatric diagnoses could be minimized by identifying behavioural clusters of specific psychiatric disorders. Methods: Sixty persons with intellectual disability (ID) and behavioural problems, aged 12?55 years, were assessed with standardized Indian tools for intelligence and adaptive behaviour. Clinical…

Background: Numerous studies have assessed the socio-cognitive profile in Williams syndrome (WS) and, independently, in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS). Yet, a cross-syndrome comparison of these abilities between individuals with these two syndromes with known social deficits has not been conducted. Methods: Eighty-two children participated…

Background: The potential effects on other children when there is a child with intellectual disability (ID) in the family are being increasingly recognized. This study describes the impact of having a sibling with Down syndrome or Rett syndrome using a questionnaire completed by parents. Methods: The parents of 186 Western Australian children with…

Background: Recent research has suggested a specific impairment in frontal-lobe functioning in the preclinical stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in people with Down's syndrome (DS), characterised by prominent changes in personality or behaviour. The aim of the current paper is to explore whether particular kinds of change (namely executive…

The descriptive phenomenological categorical psychiatric diagnostic systems that are currently being used in the field of intellectual disability do not adequately provide for the special needs of persons with intellectual disability. Many relevant diagnostic questions are left unanswered or are only partially accounted for. This is particularly…

Background: Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is associated with a characteristic behavioural phenotype whose main features are, alongside compulsive hyperphagia, deficits in social behaviour: social withdrawal, temper tantrums, perseverative speech and behaviour, mental rigidity, stereotyped behaviour, impulsiveness, etc. Similar symptoms may also be…