Systematic review of systematic reviews on psychological therapies for people who have intellectual disabilities: 1. Quality appraisal

Purpose This paper aims to assess the quality of systematic reviews on the effectiveness of psychological therapy for adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) and mental health difficulties. Design/methodology/approach Four electronic databases were used: Cochrane, PsycINFO, PubMed and Scopus. Studies were included if they were a systematic review focused primarily on psychological therapy for adults with ID and mental health difficulties. Systematic reviews focused on anger were also considered for inclusion. These reviews were rated for quality on the Amstar-2, a quality rating tool designed to evaluate systematic reviews. Findings Twelve relevant systematic reviews were identified, which included seven reviews focused primarily on cognitive behavioural therapy, two on psychodynamic therapy and three on third-wave therapies. The AMSTAR-2 indicated that all 12 reviews were of “critically low” quality. Thus, there are significant problems with the evidence base. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic review of systematic reviews of the effectiveness of psychological therapies for people who have ID. It provides an overview of the quality of the evidence base into one place.