The failure to detect low IQ in psychiatric assessment.

The authors assessed the IQs of 188 hospitalized psychiatric patients and found that 27 (14.4%) had IQs of 85 or less. However, the psychiatric records of 22 of the patients with low IQs showed that only 5 contained any mention of level of intellectual functioning. These findings suggest that a variable of major importance for diagnosis and treatment planning is often ignored.