Non‐pharmacological interventions in ID patients with challenging behaviours

Abstract

The STOMP (stopping over‐medication of people with a learning disability, autism or both with psychotropic medicines) initiative and NICE guidelines regarding the management of challenging behaviour in adults with intellectual disability (ID) promote the use of non‐pharmacological approaches ahead of medication, with an emphasis also on reducing dosage or stopping medication where appropriate. Here the authors report on the findings of a service evaluation looking at how often a community intellectual disability psychiatry clinic initiates non‐pharmacological approaches in cases referred for challenging behaviour, and importantly whether this impacts the dosages of medication subsequently prescribed.