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Biomedical subjects

Gregory O'Brien

Publications and source records attributed to Gregory O'Brien.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

A comparison of offenders with intellectual disability across three levels of security.

BACKGROUND: A number of authors have described, with disparate results, the prevalence of people with intellectual disability and their characteristics, in a range of offender cohorts defined by service use. These have included high security, a range of criminal justice services and community services. There is a need for research comparing cohorts of offenders with intellectual disabilities across different settings. AIM AND HYPOTHESIS: To conduct such a comparison and test the hypothesis that severity of characteristics measured will be highest in highest levels of residential security. METHOD: A clinical-record-based comparison a offenders with intellectual disability in high security (n = 73), medium/low security (n = 70), and a community service (n = 69). RESULTS: Groups were similar in age and tested IQ levels. Early psychiatric service contact had been more likely in the lower security groups. In line with the hypothesis, more complex presentations, in particular comorbid personality disorder, was more likely in the highest security group. Both fatal and non-fatal interpersonal violence convictions were significantly related to group, with more in the high security group sustaining a conviction both at the index offence and prior to that. Over 50% of all groups had at least one conviction for a sexual offence. A regression model accounting for 78% of the variance was made up largely of disposal variables (Mental Health Act status and probation) and indications of antisocial traits (criminal damage, lifetime conviction for murder and ICD-10 personality disorder classification). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: The authors show that context of sampling affects most relationships between intellectual disability (ID) and offending when the methods for measuring ID are held constant. The results also present several questions on the relationship between risk, services available in an area and referral to higher security.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Young adults with learning disabilities: a study of psychosocial functioning at transition to adult services.

A study of the psychosocial functioning of young adults with a history of learning disability (LD) in childhood is reported. The design was a non-clinic community follow-up investigation of a cohort of children who had received special education, the sample frame for which was a birth-period cohort survey. Participants were 149 young adults (89 males and 60 females derived from a survey of the 33,800 children born in the Cambridge Health District between 1967 and 1973) at the stage of transition to adult services (age 18-22y), whose measured IQ scores in childhood were <80, and who had received special education during school years. Most of the young adults were living at home (n=108) and many were in full-time employment (independent employment n=41, sheltered employment n=20), this survey having been carried out in an area of high employment. A strong correlation was found between the child IQ score and subsequent adult Vineland Scale Score. Greater efforts should be made to detect and assess LD and its attendant problems in children in order to plan future care and transition to adulthood, especially for those with more severe disabilities.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Presentation of depression in autism and Asperger syndrome: a review.

Depression is common in autism and Asperger syndrome, but despite this, there has been little research into this issue. This review considers the current literature on the prevalence, presentation, treatment and assessment of depression in autism and Asperger syndrome. There are diagnostic difficulties when considering depression in autism and Asperger syndrome, as the characteristics of these disorders, such as social withdrawal and appetite and sleep disturbance, are also core symptoms of depression. Impaired verbal and non-verbal communication can mask the symptoms of depression. Symptoms associated with autism and Asperger syndrome such as obsessionality and self-injury may be increased during an episode of depression. There is a clear need to develop specific tools both for diagnostic purposes and for measurement of depression in autism and Asperger syndrome in order to help alleviate the distress caused by this treatable illness.

Asperger Syndrome↗
PubMed2004

Autism and learning disability.

In this article a short overview is given of the relationship between autism and learning disability. Autism exists with any level of intelligence, but many individuals with autism suffer also from learning disability. Although both disorders show overlap in some behaviours they are different in many aspects. Are they distinct syndromes which influence each other, or do they belong to a broad spectrum of a condition?

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2003

Absence of auditory 'global interference' in autism.

There has been considerable recent interest in the cognitive style of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). One theory, that of weak central coherence, concerns an inability to combine stimulus details into a coherent whole. Here we test this theory in the case of sound patterns, using a new definition of the details (local structure) and the coherent whole (global structure). Thirteen individuals with a diagnosis of autism or Asperger's syndrome and 15 control participants were administered auditory tests, where they were required to match local pitch direction changes between two auditory sequences. When the other local features of the sequence pairs were altered (the actual pitches and relative time points of pitch direction change), the control participants obtained lower scores compared with when these details were left unchanged. This can be attributed to interference from the global structure, defined as the combination of the local auditory details. In contrast, the participants with ASD did not obtain lower scores in the presence of such mismatches. This was attributed to the absence of interference from an auditory coherent whole. The results are consistent with the presence of abnormal interactions between local and global auditory perception in ASD.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2003

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: review of ADHD in learning disability: the Diagnostic Criteria for Psychiatric Disorders for Use with Adults with Learning Disabilities/Mental Retardation[DC-LD] criteria for diagnosis.

BACKGROUND: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD)]is believed to be common among people with learning disabilities. Classification systems in current use have presented diagnostic difficulties in this area, when used for people with learning disability (particularly adults). METHODS: A literature search using electronic databases was undertaken, and journals were hand-searched for articles relevant to the diagnosis of mental disorders in adults with intellectual disabilities. RESULTS: There is preliminary evidence that ADHD is more common in this population than among the non-learning-disabled population, and indeed that rates of hyperactivity increase with increasing severity of learning disability. There are also associations between ADHD and certain causal syndromes of learning disability. CONCLUSION: While available evidence suggests that ADHD may be common among children and adults with learning disabilities, research has been hindered by deficits in currently used diagnostic classification systems. With the recent development of criteria for the diagnosis of ADHD in learning-disabled adults, and the publication of these in Diagnostic Criteria for Learning Disabilities/Mental Retardation[DC-LD] there is scope for an increase in the level of interest in the study of ADHD among adults with learning disabilities.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

The classification of problem behaviour in Diagnostic Criteria for Psychiatric Disorders for Use with Adults with Learning Disabilities/Mental Retardation (DC-LD).

BACKGROUND: Problem behaviour is common among adults with learning disabilities, often to an extent that it impacts upon the functioning and social inclusion of the individual, and of the individual's family and immediate social network. METHODS/RESULTS: However, most approaches to the classification and diagnosis of psychiatric disorder among people with learning disability do not deal with problem behaviour as a diagnosis. The recent innovation of the Diagnostic Criteria for Psychiatric Disorders for Use with Adults with Learning Disabilities/Mental Retardation (DC-LD) includes diagnostic criteria for problem behaviour. The background and the thinking behind these criteria are reviewed. CONCLUSIONS: It is proposed that the adoption of such criteria offers the possibility of improved services for the individuals concerned, with resultant improvements in their adaptation and social inclusion.

Adult↗