In the typically developing population, comorbid psychopathology refers to the co-occurrence of two different psychopathologies other than cognitive impairments. With respect to individuals with intellectual disability, comorbidity is often described as cognitive deficits and one additional psychopathology manifesting together. However, just as within the typically developing population, individuals with intellectual disability may also present with symptoms of two or more additional disorders. The presentation of these symptom clusters may similarly correlate. Therefore, the current study used the Diagnostic Assessment for the Severely Handicapped—II in order to examine relationships between psychopathological symptom clusters in adults with severe to profound intellectual disability. Additionally, we assessed comorbid presentation of disorders other than cognitive impairments in these same adults. Several symptom clusters were identified as being related with moderate to strong positive correlations. Furthermore, elevations on the Impulse subscale were noted to be the most prevalent in the current sample, with comorbid elevations most commonly occurring along the Mood, Mania, and Anxiety subscales. The significance of these findings is discussed.
Individuals with intellectual disabilities (IDs) experience cognitive deficits as well as impairments in adaptive and social skills (Ashworth et al., 2009 and Soenen et al., 2009). In addition, challenging behaviors such as physical aggression, self-injurious behavior, and pica are fairly common in those with ID (Duncan et al., 1999 and Emerson et al., 2001). In many cases, aside from these challenging behaviors, individuals with ID also exhibit symptoms of comorbid psychopathology (Duncan et al., 1999, McCarthy et al., 2010, Smith and Matson, 2010, Sturmey et al., 2010a and Sturmey et al., 2010b). Estimates suggest that up to 4–40% of those with ID exhibit comorbidity which makes the topic an important area to investigate (Deb et al., 2001, Dekker and Koot, 2003 and Rojahn et al., 1993). In those with ID, some of the commonly seen mental health disorders include depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and anxiety disorders, among others (Deb et al., 2001, Dekker and Koot, 2003 and Hastings et al., 2005).
