Psychiatric disorder in Asian adults with learning disabilities: patterns of service use

Asian and white Caucasian adults with learning disabilities seen by the Department of the Psychiatry of Learning Disabilities, Frith Hospital, Leicester, England, in 1991 were studied. Asian adults with learning disabilities were under-represented with respect to the local population (as measured by learning disability register), but not the population of individuals with learning disabilities known to the psychiatric services. Asians were significantly more likely to receive a psychiatric diagnosis, in particular that of psychosis, but there were striking similarities in the routes of referral, the number of contacts with the service and the range of defined disabilities.