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Despite Rise in Mental Health Disorders, no Increase in Access to Formal Psych Care for People with Borderline Intellectual Impairment
While people with borderline intellectual impairment showed increasing prevalence of several mental health disorders over a decade and a half, access to formal psychiatric care did not increase, according to a study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research.
Researchers compared prevalence rates of psychiatric disorders and looked at trends in treatment and services in people with borderline intellectual functioning and the general population. The analysis was based on data from the 2000, 2007, and 2014 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Surveys of private households in England. Among the 21,796 participants in the study, 2786, or 12.8%, reported having borderline intellectual functioning.
Odds of developing mood and anxiety disorders, psychosis, drug dependence, and suicidal behavior were significantly higher in people with borderline intellectual functioning compared with the general population, the study showed. Furthermore, the odds increased across surveys.
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People with borderline intellectual functioning received significantly more pharmacological treatments. Compared with people from the general population, in 2014 people with borderline intellectual functioning had odds ratios of 3.18 for antipsychotics and 1.47 for antidepressants, according to Psychiatry Advisor coverage of the study. The odds ratio for psychiatric ward admission was 3.31, “though contact frequency with formal psychologists and psychiatrists did not appear to be elevated,” the report stated.
Although access to general practitioners, community care, and daycare services increased over subsequent surveys, access to formal psychiatric care did not.
“These changes over time underline some of the problems this population faces, emphasizing a need to recognize that this is a population often overlooked in research and clinical practice,” researchers wrote.
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