The effectiveness of psychodynamic interventions for people with learning disabilities: a systematic review

Abstract

Purpose -Recent governmental policy has emphasised the need for greater choice and inclusion for people with learning disabilities. Accordingly, learning disabilities services are increasingly offering a greater choice of psychological interventions to people with learning disabilities. A growing body of research has examined the use of psychodynamic interventions for people with learning disabilities. The purpose of the this paper is to identify, outline, and evaluate research on the efficacy of psychodynamic approaches with people with learning disabilities and to consider the implications for clinical practice. Design/methodology/approach -A systematic search identified 13 relevant studies. A qualitative review of these studies was carried out. Findings -Overall, the reviewed studies offer some preliminary support for the use of psychodynamic approaches with people with learning disabilities. Research limitations/implications -A number of methodological issues are identified (particularly concerning the influence of extraneous variables and the generalisability of findings) and further, larger scale and more robust, research is required. Practical implications -Learning disabilities services should consider providing psychodynamic psychotherapy for people with a mild learning disability experiencing mental health, behavioural, and/or offending problems. Originality/value -This paper provides an up-to-date, comprehensive review of the literature on the efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy for people with a learning disability that will be of use to services providing therapeutic support to people with a learning disability and to people commissioning those services.

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy [DBT] with People with Intellectual Disabilities: A Systematic Review and Narrative Analysis

“…() conducted a review of psychological therapies available to people with intellectual and development disabilities and concluded that psychodynamic psychotherapy, cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT), counselling and systemic family therapy can be adapted to be accessible for people with intellectual and development disabilities with positive outcomes reported, but many of the studies reviewed were small scale and of low methodological quality. More recent reviews of specific interventions have concluded that there is some evidence to support the use of psychodynamic therapies (James & Stacey ), mindfulness‐based interventions (Chapman et al . ; Hwang & Kearney ) and CBT (Nicoll et al .…”

“…Brown et al (2011) conducted a review of psychological therapies available to people with intellectual and development disabilities and concluded that psychodynamic psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), counselling and systemic family therapy can be adapted to be accessible for people with intellectual and development disabilities with positive outcomes reported, but many of the studies reviewed were small scale and of low methodological quality. More recent reviews of specific interventions have concluded that there is some evidence to support the use of psychodynamic therapies (James & Stacey 2013), mindfulness-based interventions (Chapman et al 2013;Hwang & Kearney 2013) and CBT (Nicoll et al 2013;Jennings & Hewitt 2015) with people with intellectual and development disabilities. A recent meta-analysis of psychological therapies for people with intellectual and development disabilities by Vereenooghe & Langdon (2013) concluded that CBT was an effective treatment for anger and depression and that when CBT was excluded, adults with intellectual and development disabilities still benefited from psychological therapies, but there was insufficient evidence regarding the efficacy of psychological therapies for children and young people with intellectual and development disabilities.…”

Effectiveness of cognitive-behaviour therapy for hoarding disorder in people with mild intellectual disabilities

“…This requires the other psychotherapies for people with ID and mental health problems that have been found to be effective (e.g. such as psychodynamic psychotherapy; James & Stacey, 2014) to produce some evidence with regards to treatment outcome to effectively serve as a valid active comparison arm in an RCT. Outcomes need to be compared naturalistically between treatments supported by key-worker input and those that are solely therapist-delivered.…”

The use of cognitive behaviour therapy to treat depression in people with learning disabilities: a systematic review

“…There is, however, a growing recognition that individuals with learning disabilities should also have access to psychological treatments and clinicians have begun to adapt therapies such as cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) or psychodynamic therapy for this population (James and Stacey, 2014).…”