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Towards Rational Psychotropic Prescribing for People with Learning Disability
Author(s) -
Clarke David J.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
british journal of learning disabilities
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.633
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1468-3156
pISSN - 1354-4187
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-3156.1997.tb00009.x
Subject(s) - challenging behaviour , learning disability , psychopharmacology , psychiatry , psychology , psychotropic agent , medicine , clinical psychology
The use of psychotropic medication to treat emotional and behavioural disorders among people with learning disability has been a cause of concern for some time. It has also been the subject of numerous surveys and reviews in a number of countries. The types and uses of psychotropic drugs, and some of the research evidence regarding the prescribing of these compounds to people with learning disability, are reviewed. Good practice is based on maximising the benefits and minimising the risks of prescribing. Criticisms of ‘inappropriate’ prescribing have often been based on assumptions that may not apply in clinical practice, especially when other treatment options have been exhausted. However, few clinicians would dispute the need for better evidence about the efficacy of drugs in the management of behaviours that challenge services. Advances in neurochemistry and psychopharmacology have opened up the possibility of more rational approaches to the treatment of maladaptive behaviours associated with learning disability, based on a knowledge of underlying biological abnormalities and the actions of drugs on specific receptors or neuroregulatory systems. Clinical trials with sound methodology are beginning to appear, but there are many unanswered questions.