Association between
Intellectual disability [
ID] and
psychiatric disorders in
children and
adolescents is well established but there is a paucity of published studies from
Pakistan on this topic. The main aim of the study was to assess the frequency of
ICD-10 psychiatric diagnosis in the
hospital outpatient sample of
children with
ID in Lahore,
Pakistan as well as to find out which challenging
behaviors,
caregivers find difficult to manage in this setup. Socio-demographic information was collected,
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised and
ICD-10 diagnostic criteria was used to assess
children [age range 616 years] with suspected
ID along with identification of
behaviors found to be difficult to manage by
caregivers. 150
children were assessed with mean age of 10.7 years [
males 70%]. Majority [72%] had mild
ID while 18.7% and 9.3% had moderate and severe
ID respectively. Thirty percent of
children met the criteria for any
psychiatric diagnosis, the most common being
Oppositional Defiant Disorder [14%] and Hyperkinetic Disorders [10%]. Verbal and physical
aggression,
school difficulties,
socialization problems, inappropriate
behaviors [e.g. disinhibition],
sleep and
feeding difficulties were the significant areas identified by the
caregivers as a cause of major concern. Significantly high
prevalence of
ICD-10 psychiatric diagnosis in
children with
ID was found in Lahore,
Pakistan. Support services for these
children should be responsive not only to the
needs of the
child, but also to the
needs of the
family