The Presentation of and Screening for Depressive Disorders in Adolescents With Intellectual Disability

Several depressive symptoms can be challenging to observe and assess in adolescents with intellectual disability and depressive disorders are likely under-recognised. This thesis aimed to describe depressive disorder symptoms in adolescents with intellectual disability and evaluate existing checklists as potential screening measures. Parents of adolescents were interviewed about mental health symptoms and parents and teachers completed several checklists. The most frequently reported depressive symptoms and co-occurring symptoms and disorders were described. Screening algorithms for depressive disorders were developed using existing checklists. Parent-completed screening algorithms showed promise as effective screening measures to identify adolescents in need of assessment for depressive disorder.