Interventions for adults with mild intellectual disabilities and mental ill‐health: a systematic review

Background People with intellectual disabilities have very high rates of mental ill health. Standard psychosocial interventions designed for the general population may not be accessible for people with mild intellectual disabilities, and drug usage tends to be modified – ‘start low and go slow’. This systematic review aims to synthesise the evidence on psychological, pharmacological and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) interventions for adults with mild intellectual disabilities and mental ill health. Method PRISMA guidelines were followed. Medline, Embase, PsycINFO and CINAHL were searched, as was grey literature and reference lists of selected papers. Papers were selected based on pre‐defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. A proportion of papers were double reviewed. Data was extracted using a structured table. Study registration: PROSPERO 2015:CRD42015015218. Results Initially, 18 949 records were identified. Sixteen studies were finally selected for inclusion; seven on psychological therapies, two on group exercise, five on antipsychotics and two on antidepressants. They do not provide definitive evidence for effectiveness of psychosocial interventions, nor address whether starting low and going slow is wise, or causes sub‐optimum therapy. Conclusions There are few evidence‐based interventions for people with mild intellectual disabilities and mental ill‐health; existing literature is limited in quantity and quality. Group cognitive‐behavioural therapies have some supporting evidence – however, further randomised control trials are required, with longer‐term follow‐up, and larger sample sizes.