2: Developmental Disability and Ageing (PDF)

This handbook is aimed at clinicians and others who are engaged in caring for ageing adults with developmental disabilities. It is intended to inform understanding, promote assessment, assist in care planning, and especially to improve everyday living for this needy but sadly often neglected group of vulnerable individuals. The authors cite the crucial evidence and indicate sources of further reading, focusing on important insights that are likely to be valuable to the clinician interested in the care of the individuals on whose behalf the book has been prepared. A brief general overview of the area is followed by a detailed consideration of dementia in the context of developmental disability, including cause, diagnosis, assessment and natural history, with case examples. The next chapters concentrate on two of the most high-profile of all the major groups of developmental disabilities, with their own unique patterns of ageing: Down syndrome and cerebral palsy. Other less common causal syndromes, and their characteristics with ageing, are then reviewed. This is followed by a detailed guide to drug treatment issues in this group with a clear review of the evidence of the usefulness of anticholinesterase inhibitor drugs and other psychotropic and medical drug therapies. It covers drug interactions, treatment/compliance monitoring and how these relate to the special needs of the elderly adult with developmental disability. The final chapter considers wider issues of psychosocial intervention and life planning for the ageing individual with developmental disability.