The Need for Research on Intellectual Disabilities and Severe Psychiatric Disorders in Children and Adolescents

Investigators frequently exclude individuals with intellectual disability (ID) from studies of severe psychopathology in order to focus on homogeneous populations and to avoid the risk that the inclusion of dually diagnosed patients will lead to diagnostic uncertainty. 

Studies of psychiatric disorders in adults with ID suggest that the overall incidence of psychopathology is between 14% and 41%. Investigations of severe psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents with ID are scarce and those available estimate the rate of comorbid disorders as between 30% and 50%. In fact, epidemiological studies indicate that the overall prevalence rates of psychiatric disorders in youth with ID are higher than those in the general population with similarly high incidence rates for children and adolescents with IQs equal to or lower than 50. Read more>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>