Respondent and informant accounts of psychiatric symptoms in a sample of patients with learning disability

Abstract

This paper investigates differences in the nature and frequency of psychiatric symptoms reported by patients with learning disability and key informants. The study involved psychiatric assessment of 100 patients with learning disabilities and key informants using the Psychiatric Assessment Schedule for Adults with a Developmental Disability (PAS-ADD), a semi-structured psychiatric interview developed specifically for people who have a learning disability. There was considerable disagreement between respondent and informant interviews: only 40.7% of cases were detected by both interviews. Respondents were more likely to report on autonomic symptoms and certain psychotic phenomena. Other anxiety and depression symptoms were more frequently reported by informants. The results indicate that it is crucial for sensitive case detection to complete both interviews where possible. If the respondent cannot be interviewed, panic disorder or phobias may be particularly difficult to detect.

Annotation: Psychopathology in Children with Intellectual Disability

“…Improving on record reviews, some researchers make DSM or ICD diagnoses based on direct interviews of children with intellectual disability or their parents (e.g., Bouras et al, 1994 ;Moss, Prosser, Ibbotoson, & Goldberg, 1996). It bodes well for future prevalence studies that the most recent versions of these systems, the DSM-IV and ICD-10, are more alike than different (Volkmar & Shwab-Stone, 1996).…”

The Checklist of Challenging Behaviour and its relationship with the Psychopathology Inventory for Mentally Retarded Adults

“…Murphy (1994) stated that for people with mild intellectual disability who can communicate their feelings and beliefs, it is possible to diagnose mental health problems accurately and, while this may at times co-exist with challenging behaviour, the two are not necessarily causally related (Holland & Murphy 1990). However, a psychiatric disorder is much more difficult to diagnose accurately (Murphy 1994) when subjects have profound and multiple intellectual disabilities, and are unable to communicate their feelings, and there is a high dependency on third-person reports (Moss et al 1996). Therefore, it can be difficult to recognize mental health problems in people who have an intellectual disability, and there is a risk of underdiagnosis and the attribution of symptoms to intellectual disability per se (Dosen 1993).…”

Women be Healthy: Evaluation of a Women's Health Curriculum for Women with Intellectual Disabilities

“…It has been suggested by some researchers that this population is at a higher risk of health problems because of a sedentary lifestyle combined with high rates of obesity (Rimmer et al 1993;Beange et al 1995;Robertson et al 2000). In addition, adults with intellectual disabilities may have dif®culties reporting symptoms (Beange et al 1995), caregivers may not know what symptoms should be reported to physicians (Moss et al 1996) and physicians may be untrained to work with this population (Lennox et al 1997).…”