#intellectual-disability

#intellectual-disability

The review also found that 79pc of service users were prescribed psychotropic medication, an unusually high rate. In comparison, a HSE national prescribing audit in 2023 came back with a rate of 39pc. Almost all children with a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of autism were prescribed psychotropic drugs. Above average prescribing of antipsychotic medication Risperidone and ADHD medication guanfacine was also found. Both have significant side effects, in particular weight gain and sedation.

More than two decades ago, the Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision prohibiting the execution of people with intellectual disabilities. The case, Atkins v. Virginia, was no sidebar in the world of capital punishment. Large numbers of those who commit capital crimes suffer from an intellectual disability. Not only that, even after Atkins, researchers found that "the vast majority of executed offenders possess significant functional deficits that rival-and perhaps outpace-those associated with intellectual impairment."

The 69-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to two counts at the Central Criminal Court of engaging in a sexual act with a protected person in Leinster on February 7, 2023.