Intellectual Disability Psychiatry

An intellectual disability psychiatrist consistently monitors how a prescribed medication impacts the cognitive function of a patient.

Prior to prescribing medication, intellectual disability psychiatrists perform a series of bloodwork panels and imaging tests. This becomes the baseline to be used at checkpoints throughout the course of a patient’s treatment and ensures that all side effects are accurately and comprehensively documented. This is increasingly important in intellectual disability patients as they are chemically more vulnerable to the side effects of prescribed medications.

The three most common patients that intellectual disability psychiatrists treat fall into the following three categories:

• Conceptual: language, writing, reading, reasoning, knowledge, memory, math
• Practical: independence in areas like job, personal care, money management, organization
• Social: empathy, communication skills, social judgment, the ability to follow rules and maintain friendships