ABSTRACT
Background
Assessment of adaptive functioning is part of the classification of intellectual disability and borderline intellectual functioning and important in estimating support needs. Adaptive functioning may be impaired in clients with psychiatric comorbidity. We investigated relationships between adaptive functioning and psychiatric comorbidity in individuals with intellectual disabilities or borderline intellectual functioning using the ADAPT.
Method
ADAPT scores of clients with comorbid psychiatric disorders were compared with those of clients without comorbidity (N = 4376).
Results
In clients with intellectual disabilities, ASD was associated with lower ADAPT scores while depressive mood disorder was associated with higher ADAPT scores. We found a negative relationship between number of psychiatric disorders and mean total ADAPT score.
Conclusion
When determining the severity of an intellectual disability or using the V-code borderline intellectual functioning, ASD and multiple comorbidities must be taken into account to prevent an intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning from being incorrectly classified.