Mental Health Clinical Assessment of Persons With Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities: History
Andrew S. Levitas, M.D. & Van R. Silka, M.D.

Adequate psychiatric evaluation of persons with mental retardation and developmental disabilities (MR/DD) involves the same steps as adequate psychiatric evaluation of a neurotypical patient, with some modification of technique to take into account the exigencies imposed by the person's disability. The procedure resembles that used in child psychiatric evaluation because, like the child brought for psychiatric evaluation, the patient usually is not the one requesting evaluation and he or she is seldom able to furnish details of history. In some ways, the evaluation is also similar to geriatric psychiatry, especially when patients with dementia cannot give an adequate history. Also, the geriatric population, like much of the developmentally disabled population, tends to have multiple medical diagnoses and to be on multiple medications that can cause problems with drug interactions and side effects. This paper describes the method of gathering history from caregivers and documents, including the significance of symptoms most often displayed by persons with MR/DD and the differences in presentation of familiar symptoms as seen in this population.