Postgraduate textbooks focusing on the mental health needs of people with intellectual disabilities are few in number. This multi-author book, written by practitioners the majority of whom are psychiatrists, is aimed at psychiatrists who see people with intellectual disabilities in their day-to-day practice. As the title suggests, the focus is on what works in clinical practice and the authors use a number of case vignettes to illustrate the evidence reviewed in each chapter. The book has taken a lifespan approach. The terminology used is either ‘developmental disabilities’ or ‘mental retardation’, whereas in the UK we tend to use the terms ‘learning disabilities’ or ‘intellectual disabilities’ to refer to the same group of people.

The book is divided into four sections, with part one providing an overview and life-cycle approach. There is a chapter on autism-spectrum disorders, which may reflect the growing significance of these disorders in the provision of services for people with intellectual disabilities. Part two covers aetiology and assessment, including an excellent chapter on acquired brain injury. Part three covers community living for people with intellectual disabilities and part four looks at interventions; it includes a chapter on pharmacology, an easy-to-read, succinct review of the evidence. The final part of the book provides a useful overview of ethics, legal issues and advocacy.

This book may have more appeal to psychiatrists in the USA as an informative resource on the needs of people with intellectual disabilities presenting to mental health services. For the psychiatrist working in the UK, it provides a wonderful insight into how colleagues in other countries deal with similar issues in this group of patients. For example, impulse-control disorders are commonly reported in clinics for people with intellectual disabilities in the USA but rarely reported in UK services. My guess is that we are probably seeing the same patients, so it would be helpful to compare and contrast our clinical practice in a more systematic way.