Case Studies

Read the following case examples illustrating difficulties in diagnosis of mental illness in people with ID. Decide what you think might be the main issue before mousing over over the answer button.

Case 1:

George is a 20 year old man with a moderate intellectual disability because of Down’s syndrome. He is normally a friendly, mischievous individual who likes attention. He has become increasingly withdrawn and irritable over recent months and he has stopped attending his day centre which he has been attending for 6 years with not problems saying no one likes him. He doesn’t want to do anything as “it’s not worth it” saying he would be better off dead. His mother was trying to get him up to have a wash when he hit her. She called the police, who took him to casualty, where the medical staff did a brief examination before saying the problem was behavioural and related to his intellectual disability. What might be the issue here?