Gender differences in psychiatric diagnoses among inpatients with and without intellectual disabilities

Trauma, intellectual and/or developmental disability, and multiple, complex needs: A scoping review of the literature

BACKGROUND

Trauma is a significant underlying factor in the multimorbidity of people with Intellectual and/or Development Disabilities (IDD). This relationship is further complicated by a growing recognition of a subset of multiply stigmatized individuals with an IDD and complex, intersecting health and social needs.

AIM

The aim of this review was to examine what is known about trauma and people with an IDD and complex needs, as defined by Community Living British Columbia's (CLBC) Multiple, Complex Needs (MCN) framework, through a broad review of relevant literature.

METHOD AND PROCEDURES

We conducted a scoping review of the peer-reviewed (9 disability journals; 7 academic databases) and grey (2 grey literature databases) on IDD and trauma through an inclusive approach that used search criteria drawn from the defining features of CLBC's MCN Framework.

OUTCOMES AND RESULTS

Apart from there being a limited amount of research on trauma and IDD, two key findings emerged. Through differing approaches that get at issues of trauma in different ways (i.e., through adverse life events or experiences of abuse), the first finding is that the research related to trauma and IDD is not cleanly linked together. The second is the focus on treatment services or interventions and not on what's happening at the organizational or system level.

CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS

There is limited research on trauma and IDD making it even more important to unify the evidence that exists. However, the literature is not integrated across different theoretical and disciplinary perspectives. In addition, the focus of trauma-related research that is occurring is interventions at the individual versus system level. Also needed are studies that explore trauma-informed practice from an organizational or top-down perspective.

Suicidal and violent ideation in acute psychiatric inpatients: prevalence, co-occurrence, and associated characteristics

OBJECTIVE

We studied the point prevalence of suicidal and violent ideation, as well as their co-occurrence and associated characteristics in inpatients with mental health disorders.

METHODS

Data on suicidal and violent ideation, and sociodemographic and clinical information, were gathered from 1,737 patients when admitted to the acute psychiatric ward.

RESULTS

The point prevalence was 51.9% for suicidal ideation and 19.8% for violent ideation. The point prevalence of co-occurring suicidal and violent ideation was 12.3%, which was significantly greater than expected by chance. Logistic regression analyses indicated that both suicidal and violent ideation were associated with young age and the absence of diagnoses of psychotic disorders; in addition, suicidal ideation was associated with female gender, violent ideation, and diagnoses of mood- neurotic and personality disorders, whereas violent ideation was associated with male gender, suicidal ideation, and diagnoses of mood and neurotic disorders.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, the findings highlight the need for further research on suicidal and violent ideation in people with mental health problems including, but not limited to, their association with adverse behavioral outcomes, as well as the need to routinely assess both suicidal and violent ideation in clinical practice.

Study of attention measured by event-related potential as a predictive factor of violence among patients with schizophrenia and substance use disorder

Background

The prediction of violence in patients with psychiatric disorders remains a challenging aspect in the field of clinical research. Many studies search the linkage between aggressive behavior and certain genetic conditions, impaired socio-emotional information processing, demographic, and clinical variables. To our knowledge, by far the relationship between aggressive behavior and impaired attention is not clear. Attention is one of the clinical variables that might have a relation to increased aggressive tendency in many psychiatric patients. So the purpose of this study is to measure the attention using ERP and search for its relation to violence in schizophrenic patients and patients with substance use disorder. This cross-sectional study was carried out on a sample of schizophrenic inpatients and patients with SUD (86 male patients) at the psychiatric department of Al-Hussein University Hospital, Cairo, Egypt.

Results

The majority of the sample lies in the age group 20–29 years old (38.4%), whereas MOAS showed that the higher tendency to violence was in the dual diagnosis of schizophrenia disorder with SUD followed by patients diagnosed with SUD.

Conclusion

Affected attention in both schizophrenic and SUD patients could be considered a potential risk factor of violence.

Gender differences in psychiatric diagnoses in older people with intellectual disability: a register study

BACKGROUND

Gender differences regarding psychiatric ill-health are well known in the general population. However, not much research is done on people with intellectual disability, and especially not among older people with intellectual disability.

METHODS

People with intellectual disability aged 55+ years in 2012 in Sweden were identified through a register containing information on those receiving support and service for this type of disability. The cohort comprised 3609 women and 4327 men with mean age 65 and 64 years, respectively. Information on psychiatric diagnoses was collected from the National Patient Register for the period 2002-2012. Potential gender differences were evaluated both for diagnostic categories (e.g. affective disorders) and single diagnoses (e.g. depressive episodes).

RESULTS

The most common diagnoses among women were in the diagnostic category affective disorders, and among men in psychotic disorders. The majority of both women (72%) and men (71%) had diagnoses in only one diagnostic category. Women were more likely than men to have at least one diagnosis of dementia (odds ratio 1.40, 95% confidence interval 1.06-1.83) or affective disorders (1.33, 1.21-1.58) during the study period. They were, however, less likely to have at least one diagnosis of alcohol/substance use related disorder (0.59, 0.43-0.80). No gender differences were found for diagnoses of psychotic (1.04, 0.86-1.27) or anxiety disorders (1.15, 0.94-1.40). Regarding single diagnoses, women were more likely than men to have had at least one diagnosis of unspecified nonorganic psychosis (1.75, 1.23-2.50), depressive episode (1.47, 1.19-1.82), recurrent depressive disorder (1.53, 1.06-2.22), other anxiety disorder (1.34, 1.06-1.69), or dementia in Alzheimer disease (2.50, 1.40-4.49), but less likely to be diagnosed with psychiatric and behavioral disorders due to use of alcohol (0.41, 0.27-0.61).

CONCLUSIONS

As in the general population, there seem to be gender differences with respect to several types of psychiatric diagnoses among older people with intellectual disability. More research is needed to establish if this is due to gender differences in the occurrence of disease, inclination to seek care, health care utilization patterns, or ability to correctly identify disorders.

Morbidity and mortality of women and men with intellectual and developmental disabilities newly initiating antipsychotic drugs

BACKGROUND

While up to 45% of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have a comorbid psychiatric disorder, and antipsychotics are commonly prescribed, gender differences in the safety of antipsychotics have rarely been studied in this population.

AIMS

To compare men and women with IDD on medical outcomes after antipsychotic initiation.

METHOD

Our population-based study in Ontario, Canada, compared 1457 women and 1951 men with IDD newly initiating antipsychotic medication on risk for diabetes mellitus, hypertension, venous thromboembolism, myocardial infarction, stroke and death, with up to 4 years of follow-up.

RESULTS

Women were older and more medically complex at baseline. Women had higher risks for venous thromboembolism (HR 1.72, 95% CI 1.15-2.59) and death (HR 1.46, 95% CI 1.02-2.10) in crude analyses; but only thromboembolism risk was greater for women after covariate adjustment (aHR 1.58, 95% CI 1.05-2.38).

CONCLUSIONS

Gender should be considered in decision-making around antipsychotic medications for individuals with IDD.

DECLARATION OF INTEREST

None.

COPYRIGHT AND USAGE

© The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2016. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.

The French version of the Reiss Screen for Maladaptive Behavior: factor structure, point prevalence and associated factors

The main aims of the present study were to examine the factor structure and the internal consistency of the factors in the French version of the Reiss Screen of Maladaptive Behavior in a French-speaking European sample. The prevalence of psychopathology and the influence of associated factors were also examined. The Reiss Screen was administered to 467 adults (age range: 18-73) with intellectual disability living in the French-speaking regions of Switzerland and Belgium. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed to replicate the original factor structure. Internal consistency was examined by using Cronbach's alpha. Analyses of variance were computed to study the influence of gender, age and Down syndrome etiology. The original factor structure of the Reiss Screen was replicated. The overall rate of psychopathology in the sample was 37%. No linear relationship between age and psychopathology was found. However, adults aged less than 26 years had lower scores than older adults on several psychopathological domains. Males had higher scores than females on the Autism and the Avoidant Disorder subscales. Participants with Down syndrome had lower scores on all domains, with the exception of the Autism subscale. The results of this study suggest that the French version of the Reiss Screen can be a useful tool to detect psychopathology in adults with intellectual disability.

Stability of sex differences by diagnosis in psychiatric hospitalizations

We examined sex differences in the distribution of psychiatric diagnoses among hospitalized patients, controlling for socio-demographic variables. The sample included 1865 psychiatric inpatients consecutively admitted during a 9-year period. The finding of a higher proportion of men among patients hospitalized for schizophrenia or substance use disorder and a higher proportion of women among those admitted for affective disorders, including bipolar disorder, was stable over time. A better understanding of these differences may help to establish more effective treatment strategies.

Prevalence of Depression and Dementia among Adults with Developmental Disabilities in Manitoba, Canada

Study Objective. To estimate and compare the prevalence of dementia and depression among adults with and without developmental disabilities (DDs). Methods. We linked data from several provincial administrative databases to identify persons with DDs. We matched cases with DD with persons without DD as to sex, age, and place of residence. We estimated the prevalence of dementia and depression and compared the two groups using the Generalized Estimating Equations (GEEs) technique. Results. The estimated prevalence of depression and dementia among younger adults (20-54) and older adults (50+) with DD was significantly higher than the estimated rates for the matched non-DD group (Depression: younger adults: RR = 2.96 (95% CI 2.59-3.39); older adults: RR = 2.65 (95% CI 1.84-3.81)), (Dementia: younger adults: RR = 4.01 (95% CI 2.72-5.92); older adults: RR = 4.80 (95% CI 2.48-9.31)). Conclusion. Significant disparities exist in mental health between persons with and without DDs.