Problem behavior and psychiatric impairment within a developmentally disabled population. III: Psychotropic medication.

This report is the third in a series on problem behavior and psychiatric impairment in a population of 35,000 individuals receiving developmental disabilities services. Young and middle-aged adults were found to receive psychotropic medication at higher rates than children, adolescents, or elderly persons. Psychotropic receipt rates were found to increase with increasing severity of mental retardation, but most evidently with increasing restrictiveness of residential setting, increasing rated severity of problem behaviors, and presence of a psychiatric impairment. Rates of medication receipt also varied as a function of psychiatric diagnostic category. Discussion remarks emphasize the need to include information relative to clinical and social aspects of program settings and the roles and decision-making performance of physicians and psychologists in research on settings serving persons with developmental disabilities.