Safety, efficacy, and tolerability of memantine for cognitive and adaptive outcome measures in adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 trial.

Background: Down syndrome is a chromosomal disorder with considerable neurodevelopmental impact and neurodegenerative morbidity. In a pilot trial in young adults with Down syndrome, memantine (a drug approved for Alzheimer's disease) showed a significant effect on a secondary measure of episodic memory. We aimed to test whether memantine would improve episodic memory in adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome.

High resolution structural and functional MRI of the hippocampus in young adults with Down syndrome.

Down syndrome is the phenotypic consequence of trisomy 21, with clinical presentation including both neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative components. Although the intellectual disability typically displayed by individuals with Down syndrome is generally global, it also involves disproportionate deficits in hippocampally-mediated cognitive processes. Hippocampal dysfunction may also relate to Alzheimer's disease-type pathology, which can appear in as early as the first decade of life and becomes universal by age 40.

High-resolution functional connectivity of the default mode network in young adults with down syndrome.

Studies of resting-state functional connectivity MRI in Alzheimer's disease suggest that disease stage plays a role in functional changes of the default mode network. Individuals with the genetic disorder Down syndrome show an increased incidence of early-onset Alzheimer's-type dementia, along with early and nearly universal neuropathologic changes of Alzheimer's disease. The present study examined high-resolution functional connectivity of the default mode network in 11 young adults with Down syndrome that showed no measurable symptoms of dementia and 11 age- and sex-matched neurotypical controls.

Playing with a Stacked Deck: Literature Review and Case Series of Problem Gambling in Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

Problem gambling (PG) is associated with significant personal and societal loss. These losses may be exacerbated when a person with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), who may not fully appreciate the inherent risks, engages in such behavior. Literature on this particular population is scarce, leaving the scientific community and treatment providers at a loss as to best practices.

Psychiatric practice for intellectual disability in the USA: challenges and advances.

Individuals with intellectual disability are thought to make up at least 1% of the population, and it is estimated that approximately one-third of them have a comorbid psychiatric disorder (Harris, 2006). These 'dually diagnosed' individuals present a particular diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. A difficulty facing psychiatry in the USA over the past several decades has been to interest and educate a sufficient number of psychiatrists to meet the mental health needs of this group of patients (Department of Health and Human Services, 2002).

Psychiatric resident education in intellectual disabilities: one program's ten years of experience.

Objective: The authors evaluated the confidence and willingness of resident graduates to treat individuals with intellectual disability (ID), following a residency rotation in developmental disability.

Methods: Thirty-two graduates of a single residency program were surveyed regarding their post-residency experience with patients with intellectual disability. All graduates had completed a 3 month, half-time residency rotation in intellectual disability.

Reliability and validity of an assessment instrument for anxiety, depression, and mood among individuals with mental retardation.

A review of the literature revealed that there was no adequate assessment instrument available that screens comprehensively for anxiety and depression in persons with mental retardation. The purpose of this research was to develop the Anxiety, Depression, and Mood Scale (ADAMS), an instrument intended to fill this gap. We developed a preliminary rating scale that included 55 symptom items.