Psychiatric symptoms influence the performance on the Screener Intelligence and Learning Disabilities in general mental health care in The Netherlands
Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities
ISSN: 2044-1282
Article publication date: 16 June 2022
Issue publication date: 24 October 2022
Abstract
Purpose
A recently published study showed a 41% prevalence of mild intellectual disability (MID) and borderline intellectual functioning (BIF) in a large sample of Dutch psychiatric patients. This study aims to examine if the outcomes of the Screener for Intelligence and Learning Disabilities (SCIL) were affected by the severity of psychiatric symptoms during admission.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors administered the SCIL and the Kennedy Axis V (domain psychological impairment) at two moments when patients were sufficiently stabilised and just before discharge.
Findings
A total of 86% of the respondents had the same outcome regardless of the time of administration. The Kennedy score correlated modestly with changes in the SCIL scores, suggesting that the severity of psychiatric symptoms just modestly affected the performance.
Practical implications
Recognising MID/BIF in mental health care is essential but challenging for clinicians. The authors concluded that screening with the SCIL allows clinicians to identify patients with MID/BIF at an early stage of their admission, which helps to individualise treatment and reduce the risk of aggression, coercive measures and prolonged admissions. However, the authors prefer to assess all patients on cognitive impairment as early as possible after referral at a more stable moment in time.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no research concerning screening instruments on MID/BIF used at admission wards in Mental Health Care.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Conflicts of interests: One of the authors of this article (H. Nijman) was a (co-)author of both the aggression scale (SOAS-R) and the Screener for Intelligence and Learning Disabilities (SCIL) that were used to collect data in this study. The other authors have no conflicts of interest.Availability of data: Data analysis was performed on fully anonymised data that could not be used to identify an individual. Data are, after request to the third author, available at the Radboud repository, University Nijmegen, for uploading.Code availability: Analysis was done in SPSS 6 Version 27. Data can be acquired from the second author.Ethical considerations: All procedures performed in the current study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Ethics committee of the regional hospital of Enschede, The Netherlands, as obtained in 2014 and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Data were analysed on fully anonymised data of which none of the cases could be identified to an individual.
Citation
Nieuwenhuis, J., Noorthoorn, E., Lepping, P., Mulder, N. and Nijman, H. (2022), "Psychiatric symptoms influence the performance on the Screener Intelligence and Learning Disabilities in general mental health care in The Netherlands", Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 211-215. https://doi.org/10.1108/AMHID-12-2021-0052
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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