Olanzapine for Self-Injurious, Aggressive, and Disruptive Behaviors in Intellectually Disabled Adults: A Retrospective, Open-Label, Naturalistic Trial

Background: The effectiveness of olanzapine in treating challenging behaviors in the intellectually disabled and its ability to substitute for conventional antipsychotic drugs were evaluated.

Method: A total of 20 institutionalized adults with a mean age of 42.7 years (range, 18-55 years) with intellectual disability and aggression, self-injurious behavior, destructive/disruptive behavior, or combinations of these behaviors were studied. These individuals were receiving multiple psychotropic medications at baseline and were given additional treatment with the atypical antipsychotic agent olanzapine. The mean dose of olanzapine was 9.1 mg/day (range, 2.5-22.5 mg/day). Effectiveness was determined by retrospective review of the summaries of quarterly neuropsychiatric behavioral reviews and retrospective review of longitudinal behavioral graphs of target symptoms. Data were collected from 1995 to 2000.

Results: A significant decrease in global challenging behaviors and specific target behaviors (i.e., aggression, self-injurious behaviors, destructive/

disruptive behaviors) occurred (p < .05). A numericaldecrease in the dosage of concurrent conventional antipsychotic medications occurred over the course of the first 6 months of olanzapine therapy, and a statistically significant (p < .005) decrease from the start of olanzapine therapy occurred in those subjects who received olanzapine for longer than 6 months (mean = 20.3 months). A significant increase in weight occurred in the subject group during the first 6 months of olanzapine treatment (p < .006), and sedation and constipation were the other common side effects noted.

Conclusions: Olanzapine was found to be effective in the treatment of challenging behaviors in the intellectually disabled and in part could be substituted for administration of conventional antipsychotic drugs.