Prevalence of psychiatric diagnoses in children with mental retardation: data from a population‐based study

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to estimate the prevalence of psychiatric diagnoses in children with mental retardation (MR) (IQ≤70). All children born between 1980 and 1985 (N=30037) in Akershus County, Norway, were screened for possible MR and assessed with either IQ tests or standardized developmental tests. A total of 178 children, 79 with severe mental retardation (SMR) (IQ<50) and 99 with mild mental retardation (MMR) (IQ 50 to 70) were included for further study. Psychiatric symptomatology was assessed as a standard part of the neurodevelopmental examination, which included a semistructured parent interview, a clinical child interview, and retrieval of the charts of previous child psychiatric examinations. Psychiatric diagnoses were classified according to the International Classification of Disease (ICD‐10). In total, 65 (37%) of the total population with MR (95% confidence intervals 29 to 44) were registered to have psychiatric diagnoses, the most common being hyperkinesia (n=28) and pervasive developmental disorder (n=15). Psychiatric diagnoses were present in 42% of the population with SMR and 33% of the population with MMR (p=0.4). Of all children found to have a psychiatric diagnosis, approximately one‐third had previously been examined by a child psychiatrist and indicated a previously unrecognized need for these services to children with MR.

The Association Between Area‐Level Indicators of Social Deprivation and the Emotional and Behavioural Needs of Black and South Asian Children with Intellectual Disabilities in a Deprived Urban Environment

“…The results add to the existing body of literature that suggests that (older) age, (more restricted) adaptive behaviour and (male) gender are associated with higher risk of emotional and behavioural disorders (Einfeld & Tonge 1996a,b;Stromme & Diseth 2000;Emerson 2003;. They are also consistent with the very limited literature on ethnic differences in finding that teachers report lower rates of emotional and behavioural disorders among South Asian children .…”

“…First, a number of studies have sought to identify the prevalence of emotional and behavioural needs in wellconstructed population-based samples. The available evidence from this strand of research suggests preval-ence rates of approximately 40% for emotional and behavioural disorders (including formally diagnosed psychiatric disorders) among young people with intellectual disabilities in Australia (Einfeld & Tonge 1996a,b), England (Emerson 2003), Finland (Linna et al of intellectual disabilities, communication skills, physical disability (Einfeld & Tonge 1996a,b;Stromme & Diseth 2000;Emerson 2003) -and increasingly on the impact of syndromes associated with intellectual disabilities on emotional and behavioural needs (Dykens 1999;Hodapp & Dykens 2004). There also exists a modest literature on the impact of proximal social factors, such as family characteristics and functioning (Emerson 2003) and life events (Hatton & Emerson 2004) on prevalence rates.…”

In plain sight but still invisible: A structured case analysis of people with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning

“…However, the rate of mental health problems in our sample was higher than reported by other studies on mental health problems in people with ID. International studies have reported the prevalence of mental health problems to be 31-50% in children and adolescents with ID (Dekker & Koot, 2003;Dekker, Koot, van der Ende, & Verhulst, 2002;Emerson, 2003;Emerson & Hatton, 2007;Linna et al, 1999;Molteno, Molteno, Finchilescu, & Dawes, 2001;Strømme & Diseth, 2000). Cooper et al (2007) concluded that the prevalence of mental health problems in adults with ID is 16-41%, and in adults with MID the prevalence is 34.4%.…”

Psychopathology: ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorders, and Other Conditions Present in Early Childhood

“…Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders occurring in 1 out of 68 children (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] 2014a) and is the second most common comorbid disorder with ID after ADHD (Strømme and Diseth 2000). According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.…”