BACKGROUND:The present observational cross-sectional study aimed at investigating the prevalence of feeding and eating disorders (FEEDs) in adults with intellectual disability (ID)/intellectual developmental disorder (IDD) with or without autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and specific problem behaviours (PBs). METHODS:Two hundred six adults with ID/IDD consecutively attending residential and rehabilitative facilities, 59.2% of which had co-occurring ASD, were assessed for presence of FEEDs by a structured interview specifically developed for the study and Diagnostic Manual - Intellectual Disability criteria. RESULTS:The 4.3% of the sample fully met the diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa, 6.7% for bulimia nervosa (BN) and 22.8% for binge eating disorder (BED). Furthermore, at least one observable symptom of these disorders was found in higher percentages of the sample. A higher prevalence of FEEDs was found in ID/IDD plus ASD than in ID/IDD alone. PBs were also significantly higher in participants with co-occurring ASD and had a positive correlation with the number of FEED symptoms, especially for BN and BED. CONCLUSIONS:The study enriches previous literature and considers novel aspects such as the behavioural/observable presentation of symptoms as well as the association with ASD and PBs. These issues deserve a specific consideration within standard psychiatric assessment and future research, especially in persons with major communication and/or cognitive difficulties.

The aim of the present study is to provide an analytic review of psychological tests used in the admission process of candidates to the Catholic priesthood or religious life. We selected research conducted from January 1966 to May 2021 available on Pubmed (Medline and Pubmed Central), Elton Bryson Stephens company research platform, Medscape, Google Scholar, and Research Gate. Only studies describing acceptable psychometric properties have been included in this review. Forty empirical studies were identified on 13,200 articles reviewed and 45 diagnostic tools investigated. Taking the type of studies into account, only 0.7% of all production is represented by observational studies. Of these, only a few are longitudinal and correlational studies. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory is the most widely used instrument. Cross-sectional studies, meta-analyses and systematic reviews would be the ideal for detecting validated screening tools; unfortunately, they are very few in this specific field. Longitudinal and correlational studies can also be interesting as they allow to evaluate the results of educational processes over a period of time, in order to correct them. It is significant that almost all the studies reported here focus on the use of personality assessment in the admission process. It is necessary to define precise targets for evaluation in this area, in order to identify valid and reliable diagnostic tools that could support formators in their educational role.

Purpose – The management of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) requires a multimodal approach of behavioural, educational and pharmacological treatments. At present, there are no available drugs to treat the core symptoms of ASDs and therefore a wide range of psychotropic medications are used in the management of problems behaviours, co-occurring psychiatric disorders and other associated features. The purpose of this paper is to map the literature on pharmacological treatment in persons with ASD in order to identify those most commonly used, choice criteria, and safety. Design/methodology/approach – A systematic mapping of the recent literature was undertaken on the basis of the following questions: What are the most frequently used psychoactive compounds in ASD? What are the criteria guiding the choice of a specific compound? How effective and safe is every psychoactive drug used in ASD? The literature search was conducted through search engines available on Medline, Medmatrix, NHS Evidence, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library. Findings – Many psychotropic medications have been studied in ASDs, but few have strong evidence to support their use. Most commonly prescribed medications, in order of frequency, are antipsychotics, antidepressants, anticonvulsants and stimulants, many of them without definitive studies guiding their usage. Recent animal studies can be useful models for understanding the common pathogenic pathways leading to ASDs, and have the potential to offer new biologically focused treatment options. Originality/value – This is a practice review paper applying recent evidence from the literature.

In the field of intellectual disability (ID) generic quality of life (G-QoL) has been reported to be much more useful than health-related QoL. Despite this, Italian-language tools with validated assessment of G-QoL in people with ID are lacking. The authors undertook a study to test the psychometric properties of the BASIQ, an Italian adaptation of the Quality of Life Instrument Package developed at the Centre for Health Promotion, University of Toronto, Canada, in the early 1990s. This instrument package integrates qualitative and quantitative measures and subjective and objective approaches in assessing nine domains of QoL using a direct interview (DI), a proxy questionnaire (PQ), and an external assessor questionnaire (EAQ). Using BASIQ, the study assessed the QoL of a sample of 281 adults with ID (47 DI by 11 raters, 260 PQ by 23 proxies, and 69 EAQ by 5 physicians) drawn randomly from a three services populations in central Italy. The adults, 69% men and 31% women, ranged in age from 16 to 86 (X=41.57); most (67.6%) functioned in the mild and moderate ranges of ID. QoL assessments were carried out in Italian, and were completed by specially trained disability professionals. The instrument had good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.990) and satisfactory inter-rater reliability (Cohen's K>0.7). For each of the DI and the PQ, all nine domains correlated positively (p<.05), and this was also the case for most domains of the EAQ. Post hoc analyses found no differences in QoL on any of the three scales for gender or co-occurrence of mental or physical problems, but revealed some differences for level of disability. Overall, the authors present evidence for considering the BASIQ to be a valid instrument to assess QoL and put it forward as a useful tool to use in practice and policy development.

Religion and Spirituality often involve core emotional and social experiences, attitudes, affective states (both positive –such as faith, hope, courage, compassion, love, forgiveness- and negative –e.g. anxiety, anger), beliefs, world views, values, life goals and practices, that shape the personal identity and existence of many human beings. Occasionally these experiences may influence states of consciousness (e. g. calming, peaceful), life-styles, significant relationships, the meaning is given to suffering and distress, coping strategies, and the motivation to receive different types of help and support, especially in case of acute or chronic distress.

The research that we present sheds a light on a possible opportunity to provide an innovative method of rehabilitation with touchless software dedicated to users with special needs. To date our research focused on the investigation of the possible benefits in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and issues related to it such as, motor difficulties, relationship difficulties, social gender, and cognitive problems. In the study we examined five different age groups of users and the variables in relation to solicitation proposals, for 3 months. As to date there are a limited number of studies that investigate the application of software-based touchless motion and their use in practice habilitation-rehabilitation. This paper attempts to provide a dual contribution: explain an innovative therapeutic modality for lavish treatments using softwares dedicated and highly customizable, with supervision, and present the clinical experience conducted on the subjects examined. Overall, our research confirms the potential benefit that the use of such software provides dedicated, showing improvement learning variables in ASD children and adults.

Purpose Recent international experiences of community inclusion have produced a major change in residential care for people with intellectual disability (ID). Assignment and outcome assessment through new person‐centred measures are raising increasing interest; however, the information on quality of life and accommodation is still limited. This paper aims to provide an overview of the application of quality of life models and the size of the provision of different living arrangements. Design/methodology/approach A systematic mapping of the literature of the last decade was followed by an expert guided review of the available evidence. Findings QoL outcomes measures of living arrangements in people with ID show conceptual and methodological challenges. The following key topics were identified: individual level: issues related to health status, behavioural problems and other personal factors (ageing, choice and empowerment); family and peers; local level: accommodation, architecture and urbanization, and economic aspects (deprivation and costs); macro level: social participation (community inclusion). The residential solutions that are currently considered of highest efficiency are small apartments in the community and “cluster centers”. Originality/value The level of quality of life is very relevant in the assessment of living arrangements in people with ID although its assessment still shows significant limitations. Some accommodation typologies seem more effective than others. New conceptual models of inclusive residential care support the convenience of a wide range of accommodation alternatives that may fit the individual needs of a highly heterogeneous population group. A unique residential alternative, albeit optimal from a community care perspective, may not be adequate for all persons with ID.

PurposeIn psychiatry the concept of quality of life (QoL) has gradually acquired importance and interest, becoming a valuable outcome for many clinical trials. In pharmacological research on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), most used outcome measures rely on the effect on behavioural symptoms and functioning impairment, while QoL has rarely been considered. The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic mapping of the literature on QoL as a new outcome measure in psychopharmacological research for adults with ASD.Design/methodology/approachThe authors reviewed the international literature on the basis of the following questions: did pharmacological interventions on ASD include QoL as an outcome measure? If yes, how and to what extent? What consideration was given to generic (whole‐person) QoL?FindingsThe literature mapping shows an extreme lack of studies including QoL as an outcome measure. The few contributions present in the literature show significant conceptual and methodological limits. The literature does not allow any comparison of effectiveness between classes of drugs or single compounds with respect to QoL.Originality/valueThe present mapping is the first contribution of literature reviewing on the application of QoL to pharmacological treatments of any kind for ASD. Although the international scientific community shows increasing interest on QoL and other person‐centred measures in psychopharmacological practice, in respect to ASD considerable research efforts are needed to make these measures applicable and their usefulness actually proved.

SPAID (Psychiatric Instrument for the Intellectually Disabled Adult) is the first Italian tool-package for carrying out psychiatric diagnosis in adults with Intellectual Disabilities (ID). It includes the "G" form, for general diagnostic orientation, and specific checklists for all groups of syndromes stated by the available classification systems. SPAID was established to provide an easy and quick tool for daily practice of the personnel working with ID. The present study was aimed at evaluating psychometric and psychodiagnostic characteristics of the SPAID-G and at supplying new data on the prevalence rate of psychiatric disorders in a multicentric Italian sample of people with ID living in different settings. The SPAID-G was randomly applied to 304 participants with ID attending residential facilities or assessment services across Italy. A part of the sample was also consecutively assessed through the use of DASH, PDD-MRS and by the clinical application of the DSM-IV TR criteria. The correlation between SPAID-G scores and those provided by other evaluation tools was over 60%. Additionally, the internal consistency and inter-rater reliability resulted to be good. Psychopathological symptoms were detected in approximately 40% of the sample. Respectively, autistic spectrum disorders, impulse control disorders, mood disorders, and dramatic personality disorders were the diagnostic orientations providing the most prevalent over-threshold scores. SPAID-G seems to be a valid diagnostic tool, quick and easy to use in psychiatric disorders assessment within the Italian population with ID.

ObjectivesGeneric (G) Quality of Life (QoL) has broader implications and potentialities than Health-Related (HR) QoL. Italian tools for the assessment of G-QoL are few and present considerable limitations.The aim of the present work was to assess psychometric characteristics of the BASIQ (BAtteria di Strumenti per l'Indagine della Qualita di Vita), the Italian translation and adaptation of the Quality of Life Instrument Package (QoL-IP) of the Centre for Health Promotion, University of Toronto. The package is based on an interpretative model of QoL that integrates qualitative and quantitative, as well as subjective and objective data, but the core quality of life measure is the perception of satisfaction weighted by ratings of importance. The BASIQ is comprised of three instruments: a direct interview with the person that is scored like a questionnaire but provides considerable qualitative data, a questionnaire for proxies who know the person well (caregiver, front line healthcare operators, etc.), and a questionnaire for external assessors (general practitioner, specialist, lawyer, etc.).MethodsThe BASIQ was used to assess QoL of a sample of 280 participants with psychiatric disorders or Intellectual Disability (ID) or dual diagnosis (ID + psychiatric disorder); control participants were considered to be healthy.All participants were recruited randomly or consecutively among those attending the psychiatric clinic of the University of Florence or residential and rehabilitative facilities for ID in Tuscany and Veneto (Italy). Healthy participants were randomly recruited among students or trainees of the Schools of Medicine and Psychology of the University of Florence and from occasional users of outpatient centres of the Quartiere 2 of Florence. The absence of psychic and physical disorders was certified through - their scores on the General Health Questionnaire. Five psychologists, three psychiatrists, two speech therapists and one educator administered the interview and the proxy questionnaire to a random number of consecutive participants. Three general practitioners and one psychiatrist completed the external assessor questionnaire. The inter-rater reliability was assessed through a special session in which different professionals independently attributed scores to the same case, after having been provided information by the referring psychiatrist.ResultsThe reliability of the instrument was very good. Reliability and internal consistency analysis resulted in a Cronbach's alfa of 0.990 and in significant Spearman's and Pearson's coefficients for all the computable correlations between subareas in all the subgroups of the sample (Tables I-III). The only 3 non-significant correlation coefficients were among those made by the external assessor. Inter-rater reliability, calculated through Cohen's K, was higher than 0.7.ConclusionsAs an integrated auto and hetero compiled assessment battery of G-QoL, the BASIQ shows good psychometric characteristics. This instrument appears to be valid for use with all adult individuals, independently from the presence and the type of psychic disorder or intellectual disability. The BASIQ also appears to be appropriate for use by various types of professionals and service providers, both in the role of rater and informant. Thus, it can represent a valuable support in the application of QoL to research and to all practical articulations of new mental health policies.