Under-diagnosis of mental disorder in people with intellectual disabilities: study of prevalence in population with different degrees of intellectual disability

Abstract

There are a few studies in the literature analyzing the prevalence of mental illness in people with intellectual disabilities (ID). This study explores the prevalence of mental disorders in adults without previous mental disorder and different degrees of ID. We assessed 142 individuals with varying degrees of ID and with unknown previous psychiatric disorder. We applied the diagnostic battery PAS-ADD based on criteria ICD-10 and DSM-IV TR to analyzed the prevalence of mental disorders in people with mild / moderate ID. We applied the Spanish version of the scale DASH-II to analyze the prevalence of mental disorders in people with severe and profound ID. We found a psychiatric disorder previously undiagnosed in 29.57% of our sample. In people with mild/ moderate ID the most common psychiatric disorder was depressive disorder (33.3%), but in people with severe and profound ID was the anxiety disorder. The most prevalent medical comorbidity was epilepsy (22.5% of the total sample and 39.2% in the population with severe / profound intellectual disabilities). Psychiatric disorders seem to be more common in the population with ID than in the general population, increasing their prevalence and medical comorbidity in severe and profound ID.

Keywords

• trastorno mental
• discapacidad intelectual
• diagnóstico
• prevalencia.