Psychotropic Medication and Psychotherapeutic Treatment of Adults With Intellectual Disabilities
Condition: Intellectual Disability
MeSH terms: Intellectual Disability
Study type: Observational

Summary: 
      Mental health service provision of adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) is often
      criticized. There is a lack of empirically studies targeting the psychotropic and
      psychotherapeutic treatment in this population. The PROMPT-ID study therefore aims to assess
      the prevalence of psychotropic medication and psychotherapeutic treatment in adults with mild
      to profound ID and the quality of psychotropic medication. It further aims to identify
      predictors of psychotropic medication, of barriers into psychotherapeutic treatment and of
      good clinical psychotropic medication prescription practice. It is a cross-sectional,
      epidemiological study carried out in Saxony, Germany. Approval of the responsible ethics
      committee was obtained. The inclusion criteria are mild to profound forms of ID and an age of
      18 years or older. A representative sample is realized by a two-stage sampling procedure.
      Sheltered working and accommodation service providers are stratified by type of service
      provider and workshop size/type of accommodation. The stratified cluster sampling is realized
      by a random selection of service providing institutions followed by a random selection of
      adults with ID. An estimated total number of n = 200 study participants via sheltered
      workshops and n = 400 via residential accommodations need to be contacted to obtain data of
      approximately n = 131 study participants recruited through sheltered workshops and n = 232
      participants through sheltered living institutions. Based on a psychotropic medication
      prevalence of 30%, in- depth interviews about psychotropic prescription practice of an
      estimated number of n = 109 adults with ID are carried out. Data collection is realized in
      interviews with key carers in the living environment and, if applicable, with the prescribing
      physician. If the adults with ID are currently medicated with psychotropics, basic
      information e.g. about kind, agent, dosage and treatment duration are obtained and a newly
      developed interview targeting the quality of the psychotropic medication treatment is
      conducted with the carers. In addition to the prevalence and quality of psychotropic and
      psychotherapeutic health care utilisation, other parameters like psychiatric symptomatology,
      problem behavior, sociodemografic and institutional factors and parameters of the provision
      area are assessed using well- established instruments. Findings will fill the lack of
      representative data that is urgently needed in this often criticized health service area.
    


Observational model: Case-Control
Time perspective: Cross-Sectional
Sampling method: Probability Sample
Study population: 
        The study population are adults with mild to profound levels of intellectual disability
        using sheltered working and/or sheltered accommodation services.
      
Keywords: intellectual disability; psychotropic medication; mental health services evaluation