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Intellectual disability and antipsychotics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

I. Cuevas Iñiguez  and
M.D.C. Molina Lietor
I. Cuevas Iñiguez*
Affiliation:
Psiquiatría, Hospital Universitario Príncipe de Asturias, Alcalá de Henares, Spain
M.D.C. Molina Lietor
Affiliation:
Psiquiatría, Hospital Universitario Príncipe de Asturias, Alcalá de Henares, Spain
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Intellectual disability is a condition of cognitive impairment and deficit in adaptive skills. Mental illness is frequent in people with intellectual disability. As a result antipsychotics are often prescribed to treat not only mental illness but also problem behaviors.

Objectives

Perform a literature search about intellectual disability and antipsychotics.

Methods

A non-systematic literature review was performed on PubMed using the keywords “intellectual disability” and “antipsychotics”. All papers published between 2015 and 2020 were evaluated.

Results

A review of the literature reveals that antipsychotics are the most frequently prescribed psychotropic drugs in people with intellectual disability. However, results from the studies are ambiguous. Several studies showed that antipsychotics are effective in improving problem behaviours, nevertheless some recent studies showed no significant difference in the outcomes between antipsychotics and placebo

Conclusions

Even though antipsychotics are prescribed in people with intellectual disability, evidence to support their use is lacking. In consequence, clinicians should consider the pharmacological approach as a part of an integrative treatment. Assessing adverse events, drug effects and the possibility of decreasing dose of antipsychotics is crucial.

Keywords

intellectual disabilityAntipsychotics
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 64 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2021 , pp. S384 - S385
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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