Relationship between psychiatric disorders and adaptive functioning in adults with intellectual disabilities

Purpose – Though the very high prevalence of psychiatric disorders (PD) in people with intellectual disability (PwID), the impact of these disorders on adaptive functioning has been minimally investigated. The few contributions present in the literature focussed on children, adolescents, and individual with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). There are no studies concerning the evaluation of any kind of impact on individual skills. Comparison studies between PD and organic disorders, including neurological disorders (ND), was also underexplored. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of the presence of a PD on the adaptive functioning of adults with intellectual disability (ID). Design/methodology/approach – In total, 107 adults with ID living in residential facilities or attending day care centers in Tuscany were consecutively assessed with the Psychiatric Instrument for the Intellectually Disabled Adult (SPAID-G), the Diagnostic Manual-Intellectual Disability (DM-ID) criteria, and the Vineland A...