Perceptions and Attitudes Towards Intellectual Disability and Substance Use Disorder: A Quantitative Study Among Health Professionals.
Louise E M Kemna, Joanne E L VanDerNagel, Jeannette G van Manen and 1 others
PMID 41630355WHAT IT FOUND
Health professionals in addiction care held more positive attitudes towards working with patients with co-occurring intellectual disability and substance use disorder than those in intellectual disability care.
Professionals in disability care reported more negative attitudes towards this group compared to patients with intellectual disability alone.
Key findings
01Professionals in addiction care scored higher on illness coherence and had more positive attitudes towards working with patients with co-occurring intellectual disability and substance use disorder than professionals in intellectual disability care.
02Professionals in intellectual disability care had more positive attitudes towards working with patients with a single diagnosis of intellectual disability compared to those with co-occurring intellectual disability and substance use disorder.
03Believing addiction is untreatable was negatively correlated with attitude towards working with patients with co-occurring intellectual disability and substance use disorder, while understanding addiction was positively correlated.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study used snowball sampling, which may introduce bias and limits the generalisability of the results. The sample was restricted to Dutch professionals, so findings may not apply to other healthcare systems. Respondents had varied professional backgrounds and educational levels, which were not controlled for in the analysis. The study design cannot determine if the observed differences are caused by the care setting or by pre-existing differences in the professionals working there.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest and state they have nothing to report regarding funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that professionals in intellectual disability care are inherently less competent or more stigmatising. The differences in attitudes may reflect the specific challenges of the co-occurring condition or the training received, rather than a fixed trait of the workforce. Additionally, the correlations found were small, meaning other factors likely influence attitudes more strongly than these specific perceptions.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →