The Behavioural and Pharmacological Management of Problem Behaviours in People with Mental Retardation

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Abstract
Over the last two decades, there has been a significant increase in the amount of research on active interventions with mentally retarded people’s severe behaviour problems. Two of the most active approaches have been the behavioural and the psychopharmacological. In this paper, current trends in the way both treat problem behaviours are discussed. The major trend in the behavioural approach appears to be a move away from aversive means of remediating behaviour problems and a move towards better analyses of the context in which the behaviours occur. Trends discussed include analyses: a) of communicative intent; b) of the impact of setting events; c) of the theoretical bases of behaviour; and d) from an inferential, analog or descriptive approach. Major trends in the psychopharmacological approach include the increasing use of single-subject methodology and a concerted effort to determine the pharmacological bases of therapeutics for behaviour problems in people with mental retardation. The resulting conclusion is that these very diverse approaches are becoming more similar in the way they analyse treatment effects and in their bases for prescribing treatment.