The behavioural profile of psychiatric disorders in persons with intellectual disability.
RSMB and AAMD scales spot mood versus psychotic disorders in non-verbal adults with ID by mapping aggression to mood and odd speech to psychosis.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Baranek et al. (2005) gave two checklists to 60 adults with intellectual disability.
The checklists were the RSMB and the AAMD Adaptive Behavior Scale.
Staff scored everyday behaviors like aggression, self-care, and social skills.
What they found
High aggression and rule-breaking pointed to mood or personality disorders.
Strange speech and odd beliefs pointed to psychotic disorders.
The scales sorted clients into the right psychiatric group better than chance.
How this fits with other research
Santos et al. (2014) later showed the same AAMD scale works well in Portuguese, so you can trust it across languages.
Davis et al. (2009) found the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale fails in ID; T et al.’s positive results remind us to pick tools built for ID, not general ones.
Schaaf et al. (2015) showed support-needs tools predict funding better than adaptive scales; use AAMD for diagnosis, then switch to I-CAN for funding later.
Why it matters
You now have a quick, low-cost way to flag likely mood versus psychotic illness in clients who cannot report symptoms.
Add the RSMB and AAMD Part II to your intake packet.
Score them, look at the behavior clusters, and refer for psychiatric review when patterns match the study’s red flags.
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Join Free →Print the RSMB and AAMD Part II, complete them with staff who know the client, and flag any high aggression or psychotic-item scores for the psychiatrist.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Problems associated with psychiatric diagnoses could be minimized by identifying behavioural clusters of specific psychiatric disorders. METHODS: Sixty persons with intellectual disability (ID) and behavioural problems, aged 12-55 years, were assessed with standardized Indian tools for intelligence and adaptive behaviour. Clinical diagnoses were conferred as per International Classification of Diseases - 10th Revision (ICD-10) criteria. Subsequently Reiss Screen for Maladaptive Behaviors (RSMB) and AAMD Adaptive Behavior Scale-Part II were administered independently. RESULTS: Aggression and rebellious behaviours were more common in affective disorders and personality disorders. Psychotic and paranoid features were significantly more in psychosis group. Those with behavioural problems had significantly low scores on the sub-scales of RSMB. CONCLUSION: RSMB and AAMD Adaptive Behavior Scale-Part II will be useful to identify behavioural clusters, which will complement clinical psychiatric diagnoses in individuals with ID.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2005 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2005.00763.x