An open trial of psychodynamic psychotherapy for people with mild-moderate intellectual disabilities with waiting list and follow up control

Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, Ahead of Print. Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the outcome of psychodynamic psychotherapy for people with intellectual disabilities (ID), which has a limited but supportive evidence base. Design/methodology/approach The study is a systematic open trial of flexible-length psychodynamic therapy offered in an urban community to 30 people with mild and moderate ID, presenting with significant emotional distress on the Psychological Therapies Outcome Scale for people with intellectual disabilities (PTOS-ID). Allocation to therapy was made according to an established stepped care approach according to need, and the mean number of sessions was 22.03 (range 7 –47). Treatment fidelity was checked via notes review and cases excluded from analysis where there were other significant psychological interventions. Findings On both self-report (PTOS-ID) and independent ratings (Health of the Nation Outcome Scales-Learning Disability (HoNOS-LD)) recipients of therapy: did not improve while waiting for therapy; improved significantly during therapy, with large pre–post effect sizes; and retained improvements at six-month follow-up. Research limitations/implications While it is important to conduct further controlled trials, the findings provide suppo rt for previous studies. High rates of abuse and neglect were found in the sample, suggesting that more trauma-informed and relational approaches should be explored ...
Source: Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities - Category: Disability Source Type: research