Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:29:22.715Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Drug Therapy in Mental Handicap

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Brian Kirman
Brian Kirman*
Affiliation:
Fountain and Carshalton Hospital Group, Queen Mary's Hospital for Children, Carshalton, Surrey
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Definitions of mental handicap are imprecise in practice, and a wide spectrum of patients are provided for under this heading. There can be no question of specific treatment for ‘mental handicap’ as such. Many situations arising in institutions for the mentally handicapped derive from the nature of the institution and the regime. Drugs may be used ‘faute de mieux’ when environmental manipulation would be more appropriate. There is much overprescribing, and the choice of drugs is not always logical; monitoring of dose is seldom employed. A major source of behaviour disturbance in the mentally handicapped is lack of suitable occupation. Apart from a few specific indications, use of sedatives and tranquillizers for the mentally handicapped should be seen as a holding device, to enable a different system of management to be adopted or to disrupt an undesirable behaviour pattern.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 127 , Issue 6 , December 1975 , pp. 545 - 549
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1975 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barton, R. (1959) Institutional Neurosis. Bristol: John Wright & Sons Ltd.Google Scholar
Castell, J. H. F., Clarke, A. D. B., Mittler, P. & Woodward, W. M. (1963) Report of the working party on subnormality. English division of professional psychologists (educational and clinical). Bull. Brit. Psychol. Soc., 16, 37–50.Google Scholar
Castell, J. H. F., & Mittler, P. J. (1965) Intelligence of patients in subnormality hospitals: a survey of admissions in 1961. Brit. J. Psychiat., 111, 219–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clarke, A. D. B. (1969) Recent Advances in the Study of Subnormality. London: National Association for Mental Health.Google Scholar
Clarke, A. M. & Clarke, A. D. B. (1965) (2nd Ed.) Mental Deficiency: The Changing Outlook. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Committee of Inquiry into South Ockendon Hospital (1974) Report. London: H.M.S.Q. Google Scholar
Craft, M. J. (1957) Tranquillizers in mental deficiency: hydroxyzine. J. ment. Sci., 103, 855–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Craft, M. J. (1958) Tranquillizers in mental deficiency: chlorpromazine. J. ment. Defic. Res., 1, 91–5.Google Scholar
Department of Health and Social Security (1972) Census of Mentally Handicapped Patients in Hospital in England and Wales at the End of 1970. London: H.M.S.O. Google Scholar
Department of Health and Social Security (1972a) Better Services for the Mentally Handicapped. London: H.M.S.O. Google Scholar
General Register Office (1968) A Glossary of Mental Disorders. London: H.M.S.O. Google Scholar
Gray, W. J. (1974) Psychiatry and the law: Grendon Prison. Brit. J. hosp. Med., 12, 299–308.Google Scholar
Grossman, H. J. (ed.) (1975) Manual on Terminology and Classification in Mental Retardation. Washington: American Association on Mental Retardation.Google Scholar
Heber, R. (1959) A Manual on Terminology and Classification in Mental Retardation. Pineville: American Association on Mental Deficiency.Google ScholarPubMed
Kiernan, C. C. (1973) Functional analysis. In Assessment for Learning in the Mentally Handicapped (ed. P. Mittler). Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
Kiernan, G. C., Donoghue, E. C. & Hawks, G. D. (1971) A ward-wide programme for profoundly subnormal children. Paper to Behavioural Engineering Association. Third Conference, Wexford, September 1971.Google Scholar
Kirman, B. H. (1964) Drugs in the treatment of mental deficiency. Proc. int. Copenhagen Congr. sci. Study ment. Retard., pp. 241–7.Google Scholar
Kirman, B. H. (1970) Presidential address: the mentally handicapped individual in society. J. ment. Subnorm., 16, 9–16.Google Scholar
Kirman, B. H. (1972) The Mentally Handicapped Child. London: Nelson.Google Scholar
Kirman, B. H. & Moss, H. (1975) In Mental Handicap (eds. B. H. Kirman and J. Bicknell). Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone. In press.Google Scholar
McKeown, T. & Leck, I. (1967) Institutional care of the mentally subnormal. Brit. med. J., ii, 573–6.Google Scholar
Mittler, P. (Convener) (1966) Children in Hospitals for the Subnormal. London: British Psychological Society.Google ScholarPubMed
O'Connor, N. & Tizard, J. (1956) The Social Problem of Mental Deficiency. London: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
O'Connor, N. (1965) The successful employment of the mentally handicapped. In Mental Deficiency (2nd Ed.) (eds. L. T. Hilliard and B. H. Kirman). London: Churchill.Google Scholar
Raynes, N. V. & King, R. D. (1968) The measurement of child management in residential institutions for the retarded. Proc. 1st Congr. internat. Ass. sci. Study ment. Defic. 1967. Reigate, pp. 637–49.Google Scholar
Reid, A. H. (1972) Psychoses in adult mental defectives. Brit. J. Psychiat., 120, 205–18.Google Scholar
Rutter, M., Graham, P. & Yule, W. (1970) A Neuropsychiatric Study in Childhood. London: Spastics International Medical Publications.Google Scholar
Séguin, E. (1846) Traitement moral, hygiène et éducation des idiots. Paris: Ballière.Google Scholar
Spencer, D. A. (1974) The use of the W.H.O. International Classification of Diseases (mental retardation) in a hospital for mentally handicapped. Brit. J. Psychiat., 125, 333–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wechsler, D. (1958) The Measurement and Appraisal of Adult Intelligence. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.Google Scholar
Wing, L. (1974) Language development and autistic behaviour in severely mentally retarded children. Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., 67, 1031–2.Google Scholar
Working Party of the Royal College of Psychiatsrist (1974) Report of the Public Policy Committee. Brit. J. Psychiat., 125, News and Notes, October, 3–8.Google Scholar
Wright, E., Abbas, K. A. & Meredith, C. (1974) A study of the interactions between nursing staff and profoundly mentally retarded children. Brit. J. ment. Subnorm., 20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yonge, K. A. & O'Connor, N. (1954) Measurable effects of group psychotherapy with defective delinquents. J. ment. Sci., 100, 944–52.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.