Correlation between psychotropic medications and severe problem behavior and academic work completion in individuals with intellectual disabilities
Document Type
Thesis
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Psychology
Degree
M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis
Date Completed
2018
First Committee Member
Bourret, Jason
Second Committee Member
Hanley, Gregory
Third Committee Member
Pinkston, Jonathan
Abstract
"Individuals diagnosed with intellectual disabilities (ID) may engage in maladaptive behavior such as aggression, self-injury, and environmental destruction. In addition to specialized education services, many children and adolescents diagnosed with IDs such as autism spectrum disorder are prescribed psychotropic medication. The majority of the published studies conducted to assess the efficacy of various psychotropic medications use indirect measurements, such as rating scales, to measure targets such as irritability, agitation, and anxiety. However, additional analyses are necessary to identify the probability that the introduction of psychotropic medications will be correlated with a desired behavior change in individuals with IDs. The purpose of the first analysis was to describe the relation between psychotropic medications and severe problem behavior using direct measurement archival data from individuals with IDs and to determine the likelihood that the introduction of a psychotropic medication was correlated with a decrease in different forms of problem behavior. The purpose of the second analysis was to describe the relation between psychotropic medication and levels of academic work completion using a subset of the participants included in the first analysis. Across all types of medications, results demonstrated that the introduction of a psychotropic medication was associated with a decreased in rates of problem behavior for the majority of data sets and was not associated with a consistent change in work completion."
Recommended Citation
Calle, Ava M., "Correlation between psychotropic medications and severe problem behavior and academic work completion in individuals with intellectual disabilities" (2018). Master’s Theses - College of Arts and Sciences. 26.
https://digitalcommons.law.wne.edu/castheses/26
