Unnecessary psychotropic drug prescription in primary care for people with intellectual disability

ABSTRACT FROM: Sheehan R, Hassiotis A, Walters K, et al. Mental illness, challenging behaviour, and psychotropic drug prescribing in people with intellectual disability: UK population based cohort study. BMJ 2015;351:h4326. What is already known on this topic People with intellectual disability experience high rates of mental disorders and challenging behaviour, but representative data are hard to obtain for this population. Concerns have previously been raised about the difficulty this group experience in accessing quality mental health services1 and the morbidity associated with high rates of psychotropic drug prescription.2 General practitioners (GPs) are pivotal in provision of mental healthcare and representative data from this setting has the capacity to inform the epidemiology of mental disorders and the psychotropic drug burden for people with intellectual disability. Methods of the study Sheehan and colleagues conducted a longitudinal (1999–2003) cohort study of the prevalence of mental...
Source: Evidence-Based Mental Health - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Epidemiologic studies, General practice / family medicine, Neurology, Autism, Pervasive developmental disorder, Drugs: psychiatry, Epidemiology Pharmacological interventions Source Type: research