Aging and developmental disability.

This article addresses the challenges faced by individuals with a developmental disability as they age. As this group ages, many face unpleasant experiences including poverty, isolation, abuse, and at best adequate, but more commonly poor medical care. Due to biomechanical overuse, compounded by an injured nervous system, physiologic aging is accelerated. These patients experience in their 40s and 50s physical changes that able-bodied individuals experience over the age of 70. Often these patients see the least experienced members of the health care team, leading to misdiagnosis and further comorbidity.