[Psychotherapy in disorders of intellectual development-Current evidence and practical implementation]

People with a disorder of intellectual development (German draft of the ICD-11, which came into force on 1 January 2022) suffer more frequently from mental illnesses. According to the international treatment guidelines multimodal approaches should include not only psychopharmacological treatment, but also disorder-specific psychotherapeutic methods. These psychotherapeutic interventions have to be adapted to the communicative and cognitive abilities (performance diagnostics with IQ tests) as well as the emotional developmental stage (developmental diagnostics, e.g., with the scale of emotional development, short version, SED-S 2; [1]). To ensure this, the rules of simple language should be observed and when appropriate relatives or caregivers should be involved in the therapeutic process. The effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy has received most scientific attention, especially for affective disorders. Posttraumatic stress disorders can be validly treated with eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). There is also good evidence for exposure therapy with reinforcement in the treatment of anxiety disorders.