Experience and attitudes of general psychiatrists in Turkiye towards persons with intellectual disability/intellectual developmental disorders: a cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Background

The global burden of psychiatric care of intellectual disabilities/intellectual developmental disorders (IDD) remains unaddressed in general. The aim of this study was to explore the knowledge and attitudes of general adult psychiatry practitioners in Turkiye.

Methods

A self-administered cross-sectional survey was conducted to gather information regarding the medical and postgraduate training experiences, views, and attitudes towards IDD (n = 265).

Results

Among the respondents, 47.9% reported receiving some training on IDD in medical school, and 75.4% during residency training. Almost all respondents felt strongly that further specialty training would be beneficial. Majority of respondents indicated that they would be willing to see patients with IDD despite finding it difficult to diagnose/manage their co-occurring mental disorders. The most common mental health problem endorsed was ‘challenging behaviour’. The most prescribed psychotropic medication class was antipsychotics.

Conclusions

The results of the study highlight need for training, normalization, and enhancement of community inclusion in IDD.

Keywords:

• intellectual disability
• mental health
• medical and postgraduate training
• knowledge
• attitudes

Acknowledgments

We thank the participants for their expressed views.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

KMM acknowledges support on NIH grants R01HD099847 and D43 TW009680.