The outcome of treatment in care units has been thought to reflect the effectiveness of treatment. There have been only a few studies describing inpatient care and its outcome in patients with intellectual disability and psychiatric symptoms. The present study describes the psychiatric inpatient treatment in the specialist psychiatric unit of the Special Welfare District of Southwest Finland and the need for aftercare among people with intellectual disability and psychiatric disorders (n = 40). As an outcome measure of care, the level of psychiatric symptoms was evaluated either with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) or with the Diagnostic Assessment for the Severely Handicapped (DASH) scale; self-reports (visual analogue scale) were also used. Patients' psychotic symptoms were reduced significantly on the BPRS during inpatient care and aftercare, but non-psychotic symptoms were reduced significantly only during aftercare. For one patient, the psychiatric symptoms were reduced significantly during inpatient care on the DASH scale, while the psychiatric symptoms remained the same for three patients. Patients and their primary carers considered the patient's psychiatric condition to have improved significantly during inpatient care, but not during aftercare. The specialist unit filled the gap in the care of people with intellectual disability and psychiatric problems in Southwest Finland. It is concluded that psychotic patients particularly benefit from the inpatient care in the specialist psychiatric unit. The care in the unit should include support for primary carers. All patients' outpatient treatment should also be re-evaluated. The present study poses two important questions. Firstly, could these treatment outcomes have been achieved with other interventions? Secondly, what are the necessary services for people with intellectual disability?

The present prospective study describes the demographic, medical and psychosocial characteristics of 40 people with intellectual disability who were referred for psychiatric inpatient treatment in the special psychiatric unit of the Special Welfare District of Southwest Finland. Three different control groups were used to study: (I) demographic variables (n = 122); (2) medical history (n = 39); and (3) psychosocial factors (n = 20). The symptoms leading to an admission to inpatient care and the connections of these clinical signs with the discharge diagnosis were evaluated. The typical inpatients were young males with mild intellectual disability, psychosis and a previous psychiatric diagnosis. They had lived in several places during their lives and their economic situation was poor. Affective and/or disruptive symptoms were the most common causes of an admission to inpatient care. The largest diagnostic group at discharge consisted of patients with psychotic disorders. The people with intellectual disability who were admitted for inpatient care formed a subgroup with certain psychiatric symptoms and social problems. Specialist psychiatric expertise is absolutely necessary for the treatment of this subgroup.

Nine parkinsonian patients were studied during one night using the static charge sensitive bed (SCSB) method for the monitoring of respiration, ballistocardiogram (BCG) and body movements. The parkinsonian sleep was more restless than that of the controls. As the SCSB-defined levels of autonomic nervous activity were concerned, the amount of motor active wakefulness (MAW) was significantly (P less than 0.05) increased in parkinsonian patients, who also had less quiet sleep (P less than 0.05) than the controls. Parkinsonian tremor was present during 29.8 +/- 15.8% of the time in bed. Usually it was observed during wakefulness; it disappeared when the patient fell asleep. The frequency of turning-over events in bed was smaller in the parkinsonian patients than in the controls (P less than 0.05). When the heart rate changes associated with sleep movements were studied it was found that the parasympathetic deceleration component in the parkinsonian patients was absent. The motor dysfunction associated with Parkinson's disease is reflected in many ways in the sleep movement activity. Sleep disturbances in PD seem to be secondary in character; i.e. they can be due to impaired motor functions like turning around in the bed, or due to impaired arousal mechanisms during sleep.

At the Paimio Settlement for The Mentally Handicapped in The Special Welfare District of Southwest Finland, 216 persons with intellectual disability died during the period 1972-93. We studied the causes of death, contributing factors, and associated diseases among these persons. Diagnoses were collected from death certificates and patient documents. The causes of death were based on autopsy in 85% of the patients.We calculated the ratio of observed (0) and expected (E) cases. Expected rates for the different causes of death were calculated using the mortality rates of the general Finnish population. The data were adjusted for age and year of death. The spectrum of the causes of death essentially differed from that of the general population. There was less than expected mortality from accidents (O/E 0,3, 95% CI 0,2-0,4), diseases of the circulatory system (O/E 0,4,95% CI 0,2-0,7) and malignant neoplasms (OR 0,5,95% CI 0,3-0,9), and more than expected mortality from respiratory diseases (OIE 2,2,95% CI 1,2-3,6).