Adverse Events and the Relation with Quality of Life in Adults with Intellectual Disability and Challenging Behaviour Using Psychotropic Drugs

Background: Psychotropic drugs are prescribed to approximately 30-40% of adults with intellectual disability (ID) and challenging behaviour, despite the limited evidence of effectiveness and the potential of adverse events.

Aims: To assess the prevalence of adverse events in association with psychotropic drug use in adults with ID and challenging behaviour and to examine the relation of these adverse events with the person's quality of life.

Method: The presence of adverse events was measured with a questionnaire that had to be filled in by the physicians of the participants. Movement disorders were measured separately with a standardised protocol. The strength of the association between adverse events and Intellectual Disability Quality of Life-16 (IDQOL-16), and daily functioning was investigated using linear regression analyses, taking into account the severity of disease (CGI-S) as potential confounder.

Results: Virtually all of 103 adults with ID and challenging behaviour had at least one adverse event (84.4%) and almost half had ≥3 adverse events (45.6%) across different subclasses. Using psychotropic drugs increased the prevalence of adverse events significantly. Respectively 13% of the patients without psychotropic drugs and 61% of the patients with ≥2 psychotropic drugs had ≥3 adverse events. Having adverse events had a significantly negative influence on the quality of life.

Conclusions: A large majority of all patients had at least one adverse event associated with psychotropic drug use. More attention is needed for these adverse events and their negative influence on the quality of life of these patients, taking into account the lack of evidence of effectiveness of psychotropic drugs for challenging behaviour.