2 research outputs found
Intellectual developmental disorders: towards a new name, definition and framework for “mental retardation/intellectual disability” in ICD-11
Although “intellectual disability” has widely replaced the
term “mental retardation”, the debate as to whether this entity
should be conceptualized as a health condition or as a disability has intensified
as the revision of the World Health Organization (WHO)’s International
Classification of Diseases (ICD) advances. Defining intellectual disability
as a health condition is central to retaining it in ICD, with significant
implications for health policy and access to health services. This paper presents
the consensus reached to date by the WHO ICD Working Group on the Classification
of Intellectual Disabilities. Literature reviews were conducted and a mixed
qualitative approach was followed in a series of meetings to produce consensus-based
recommendations combining prior expert knowledge and available evidence. The
Working Group proposes replacing mental retardation with intellectual developmental
disorders, defined as “a group of developmental conditions characterized
by significant impairment of cognitive functions, which are associated with
limitations of learning, adaptive behaviour and skills”. The Working
Group further advises that intellectual developmental disorders be incorporated
in the larger grouping (parent category) of neurodevelopmental disorders,
that current subcategories based on clinical severity (i.e., mild, moderate,
severe, profound) be continued, and that problem behaviours be removed from
the core classification structure of intellectual developmental disorders
and instead described as associated features