The total population of individuals with mental retardation/developmental disabilities in state institutions has steadily decreased since 1967 along with the number of operating state institutions. Projections indicate that decreases will continue. A graph summarizes total state institution closures between 1960 and 1995, and a table lists…

Attempted to provide psychosocial description of 187 institutionalized adolescents who completed Adolescent Health Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory. Findings suggest that these adolescents may not be as psychologically dysfunctional as is commonly surmised, considering their accumulated life events, family problems, and current…

The prelinguistic intentional communicative behaviors of 10 noninstitutionalized children (ages 6-13) with profound mental retardation were analyzed according to communicative rate, communicative function, discourse structure, communicative means, and syllable shape. Findings are compared to data from children without mental retardation and…

Evaluation of 798 adults with intellectual disability in German residential facilities and group homes revealed that subjects did not seem especially vulnerable to depressive disorders. Almost 5% were identified with depressive disorder. Those with depressive disorders experienced reduced social support. Age, epilepsy, and etiology did not show…

Fifty-eight people (ages 2 to 66) receiving residential or other services for idiopathic mental retardation were evaluated for evidence of metabolic disease. Five (8%) demonstrated symptoms pointing to specific genetic metabolic defects, suggesting the need for evaluation of other similar populations with idiopathic mental retardation. (Author/DB)

The senator from Massachusetts introduces this special issue by reviewing his family's interest in persons with mental retardation, the potential of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Intermediate Care Facilities for the Mentally Retarded (ICF/MR) program, and the importance of improving care for residents of ICFs. (DB)

Antiepileptic drug prescriptions were analyzed for 337 institutionalized individuals with mental retardation, over 54 months. Results indicated decreasing numbers of individuals receiving (1) more than 2 antiepileptic drugs concurrently, and (2) barbiturates. Over 90% of a group undergoing barbiturate taper maintained the same or improved seizure…

This study of 164 adults with physical disabilities living in institutional care in Newcastle (United Kingdom) found an overall incidence figure of 59 such adults per 100,000 population. The study also found that less than 20% were able to exercise their right to a free choice and independent decision concerning their residential placement. (DB)

This paper reviews 27 studies of parental attitudes on the deinstitutionalization of a family member with disabilities. Studies of existing institutional placements found high levels of satisfaction and opposition to deinstitutionalization, whereas studies of community placements found high levels of satisfaction with community placements and…

A retrospective evaluation of restrictive behavior programs in a state residential facility for persons with mental retardation found beneficial behavioral effects. The behavior programs reviewed utilized isolation timeout, exclusion timeout, response cost, prone restraint, seated restraint, timeout device, nonexclusion timeout, standing…

Conducted longitudinal study of 196 caregiver/care receiver dyads to determine variables predictive of caregiver decision to institutionalize dependent with dementia. Use of services, enjoyment of caregiving, caregiver burden and health, caregiver rating and reaction to care receiver behavior and memory problems, and presence of troublesome…

Examined utility of cognitive variables (pessimism, perceived and actual problem-solving ability, polarized thinking, self-negativity, construct system constriction and differentiation) as predictors of suicide risk among 79 hospitalized psychiatric patients. Results indicated that hopelessness, self-negativity, and poor problem-solving…

This study provides longitudinal analysis of day program and work activities of 61 individuals leaving Minnesota state institutions and a comparison group of 71 people remaining institutionalized. Only 13% of movers experienced integrated employment. As a group, the people who remained institutionalized actually earned more money. (Author/CR)

The accuracy of the prediction of criminal violence may be improved by combining psychopathy with other variables that have been found to predict violence. Research has suggested that assessing intelligence (i.e., IQ) as well as psychopathy improves the accuracy of violence prediction. In the present study, the authors tested this hypothesis by…

In some ways America's response to the murderous surprise attacks of September 11, 200l, resembled that of previous wars. The nation was mobilized and its military directed to hit back as soon as possible. Unlike past wars, however, the enemy proved to be a shadowy terrorist organization with a religious identity, a long-term strategy, and no…