The association between indicators of psychiatric disorder and challenging behaviour [Abstract]

Aims: To explore the association between psychiatric caseness and challenging behaviour in a general practice based population of adults with intellectual disabilities. Method: Data were collected on the age, gender, place of residence, adaptive and challenging behaviour, social impairment and psychiatric status of adults from general practices. Psychiatric caseness was based on threshold scores on the Psychopathology Inventory for Mentally Retarded Adults (PIMRA), an instrument which screens for eight major psychiatric conditions based on DSM III criteria. Associations between caseness, total PIMRA scores and scores on the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC) were analysed for groups matched on the Adaptive Behaviour Scale (ABS). Results: participants (%) attained threshold psychiatric caseness. There were statistically significant differences between those with and without caseness in: presence of the triad of social impairments, ABC scores and PIMRA scores but not gender, age or ABS scores. PIMRA and ABC scores were significantly inter-correlated. Conclusions: The study shows a relationship between psychiatric caseness and challenging behaviour independent of adaptive behaviour level and other potential confounds