Utilizing cognitive and psychometric measures to assess and treat the intellectually disabled.(Intellectual Disability)(Disease/Disorder overview)

A longstanding collegial relationship has existed between psychiatrist and psychologist in the diagnosis and treatment of individuals with mental health concerns and challenges. Nowhere is this partnership more apparent and vital than in the diagnosis and treatment of children and adolescents presenting with Intellectual Disability (ID) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

In isolation, individuals who present these disorders manifest their own unique challenges with regard to diagnostic and treatment issues. However, when concomitant neurological and psychiatric disorders occur concurrently with ID and/ or ASD, diagnosis and treatment become increasingly complicated.

What is ID?

An intellectual disability is defined as a disability of development and refers to the individual's cognition and adaptive functioning. Intellectual disability affects one percent of the population. About 85% of those affected have IQs in the mild intellectual ability range with a wide range of adaptive areas of strength and weaknesses. Intellectual disability is a complex disorder which encompasses neurogenetic syndromes, biomedical features, behavioral components, and psychosocial elements. There is no one single cause, illness, or clinical course. An intellectual disability is not static but dynamic with a variable course. The individual with intellectual disability generally does not have disordered thinking and perception is not distorted unless a concurrent mental, medical, or neurological disorder is present.

Statistics show psychiatric disorders are 3-4 times greater in …