Treating Mental Illness and Behavior Disorders in Children and Adults with Mental Retardation

Since the 1970s, the development of normalization philosophy and the implementation of community care policies have highlighted the nature and treatment of psychiatric and behavior disorders in people with mental retardation and rekindled the interest of scientists, psychiatric practitioners, and service providers. With these changes has grown a substantial body of new research and information on the phenomenology, epidemiology, classification, and clinical features of mental illness and behavior disorders in mentally retarded persons.

In response to this growing interest and awareness, the editors, together with internationally renowned contributors from the United States and Europe, have compiled the first comprehensive handbook of the current theory and practice of mental health treatment and care in mentally retarded children and adults.

Both contemporary and in-depth, this multidisciplinary, multidimensional volume covers all available therapeutic methods, including psychopharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, behavior therapies, cognitive therapy, and the systems approach for all the main diagnostic disorders in people with mental retardation.

Parts I and II present an overview of epidemiology and clinical presentation, including research trends, and therapeutic methods, including psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, behavioral therapies, cognitive and social learning treatments, and working with families and caregivers.

Parts III and IV focus on psychotherapeutic interventions, such as rational emotive group treatment with dually diagnosed adults, pre-therapy for persons with mental retardation who are also psychotic, and systemic therapy, and how to apply these methods to the treatment of specific mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, epilepsy, and mood and anxiety disorders.

Parts V and VI discuss how to treat behavior disorders such as aggression/self-aggression (pharmacotherapy and strategic behavioral interventions) and self-injurious behaviors (multimodal contextual approach), including group therapy for sex offenders and a pedagogical approach to behavior problems, and which treatment methods, such as psychodynamically oriented psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy, are most effective with children, including developmental-dynamic relationship therapy with more severely mentally retarded children.

Parts VII and VIII provide guidance on mental health services and staff training, including psychiatric treatment in community care and a model for inpatient services for mentally ill persons with mental retardation, and the editors final chapter, which draws together all the various therapeutic approaches described in previous chapters to provide a practical framework for an integrative approach.

Filling a major gap in the literature, this indispensable resource for psychiatrists, psychologists, and educators working with mentally retarded persons is also intended for general practitioners, doctors, social workers, and therapists working in the same or related fields.

Anton Došen, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor of Psychiatric Aspects of Mental Retardation at Catholic University, and Medical Director of the Clinic for Behavioral and Psychiatric Disorders in the Mentally Retarded in Nieuw Spraeland, Oostrum, The Netherlands.

Kenneth Day, M.B., Ch.B., F.R.C. Psych., D.P.M., is Medical Director and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at Northgate and Prudoe NHS Trust in Northumberland, and Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychiatry at the University Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom.