Impact of Mood Disorders, Psychotic Disorders, and Histories of Abuse on Adaptive Functioning Deficits in Adolescents with Intellectual Impairment

ABSTRACT

Background: There is no study to date that has examined the association between history of abuse and adaptive functioning deficits in youth with co-occurring and psychotic disorders or mood disorders.

Method: This study used a retrospective chart review of 98 youth under the age of 18 (Mean age = 16.06 years) with co-occurring intellectual impairment (Mean IQ = 63.9) and psychotic disorders, mood disorders, or other psychiatric disorders. Using multi-mediation models in the path analytic framework, this study examined the relationships between psychiatric diagnosis (based on DSM-IV criteria), cognitive functioning (Full Scale IQ Scores), adaptive functioning (Socialization, Communication, Motor Skills, Daily Living Skills), and the presence of the history of physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse/neglect.

Results: A very high incidence of all three forms of abuse was present in the study sample, with more than three-quarters of the youth having experienced at least one form of abuse and more than half having experienced two or the three forms of abuse. A history of sexual abuse was significantly and directly associated with an increased incidence of mood disorders. Mood disorders were the strongest predictors of adaptive functioning deficits. Youth with schizophrenia spectrum disorder scored significantly lower in communication skills than those with bipolar disorder.

Conclusion: Results are discussed in terms of the need for treatment studies and further investigations of the relationship between childhood maltreatment and adaptive functioning in youth with intellectual impairment and psychiatric disorders.

KEYWORDS:

• Intellectual impairment
• maltreatment
• mood disorders
• psychotic disorder
• adaptive functioning

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. For this type of retrospective study that relied on archival data, formal consent was not required. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.