Department of Liaison Psychiatry, James Connolly Memorial Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.
Daughters of Charity Disability Support Services, St. Vincent's Centre, Dublin, Ireland.
Ir J Psychol Med. 2022 Sep;39(3):287-300. doi: 10.1017/ipm.2021.65. Epub 2021 Oct 6.
Ireland has an ageing population of persons with intellectual disability (ID), autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and both (ID/ASD). Despite this, little is known about the prevalence of ASD and its effect on functional outcomes, psychiatric comorbidity or diagnostic issues in an older population with ID. This article reviews the literature on older adults with ID/ASD and identifies opportunities for future research in this population.
The authors searched the Medline, Pubmed, Embase, CINAHL and PsychInfo databases using the search terms using key words: (older adults) AND (ID OR mental retardation OR learning disability) AND (autism OR ASD). After excluding articles for relevance, a scoping review was carried out on the results retrieved.
Of the 1227 articles retrieved from the literature on ID and autism/ASD in older adults, 85 articles were relevant to an adult population with ID/ASD. The data were collated and are presented covering domains of diagnosis, prevalence, psychiatric comorbidities and functional outcomes.
Despite increased prevalence in childhood ASD in the last 20 years, there is a lack of research regarding adults, especially older adults, with ASD, up to half of whom will have some level of ID. The existing literature suggests that older adults with ID/ASD may have reduced functional independence, increased psychiatric comorbidity and psychotropic prescribing and more behavioural presentations than the older population generally or those with ID only. There is a need for longitudinal data to be collected on this ageing population so that care and management needs can be met in the future.
爱尔兰的人口老龄化现象严重，其中包括智障人士、自闭症谱系障碍患者以及同时患有智障和自闭症的人士。尽管如此，对于年龄较大的智障人群中自闭症的患病率及其对功能结果、精神共病或诊断问题的影响，人们知之甚少。本文综述了有关智障和自闭症老年患者的文献，并确定了该人群未来研究的机会。
作者使用以下关键词在 Medline、Pubmed、Embase、CINAHL 和 PsychInfo 数据库中搜索文献：（老年人）和（智障或智力发育迟缓或学习障碍）和（自闭症或 ASD）。在排除与相关性无关的文章后，对检索结果进行了范围综述。
从有关智障和自闭症老年患者的文献中检索到的 1227 篇文章中，有 85 篇与智障/自闭症成人人群相关。汇总了数据并呈现了诊断、患病率、精神共病和功能结果等领域的结果。
尽管过去 20 年来儿童自闭症的患病率有所增加，但针对自闭症成年人，尤其是年龄较大的成年人的研究却很少，其中一半以上的成年人会有一定程度的智障。现有文献表明，智障/自闭症老年患者的功能独立性可能较低，精神共病和精神药物处方的情况较多，以及行为表现比一般老年人或仅有智障的患者更为复杂。需要收集有关这一老龄化人群的纵向数据，以便在未来满足他们的护理和管理需求。
