Intellectual disability nursing and transcultural care.

Doody, Owen; Doody, Catriona M.; British Journal of Nursing (BJN), 2012 Feb 9; 21 (3): 174-80 (journal article - tables/charts) ISSN: 0966-0461

In today's healthcare environment, nurses are urged to use up-to-date research evidence to ensure better patient outcomes and inform nursing decisions, actions and interactions with patients. Wit...

Subjects: Transcultural Care; Ethnic Groups; Transcultural Nursing; Mental Retardation.

Available from our New Health Databases via this link
British Journal of Nursing 

Interventions for Drooling in Children with CP

Cochrane review finds insufficient evidence to inform clinical practice on interventions for drooling in children with cerebral palsy

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Feb 242012

Oral motor difficulties in children and young people with learning disabilities can lead to saliva overflow, commonly called drooling. With young people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities, this can increase the risk of inhaling saliva, food, or fluids into the lungs.
Our friends at the Dental Elf came across this systematic review of interventions for drooling in children with cerebral palsy, which we thought our readers may find useful.
Drooling can cause chapped or sore skin around the mouth and chin, and can lead to skin and mouth infections, dehydration, difficulties chewing and a range of other issues.  The Cochrane review set out to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of interventions aimed at reducing or eliminating drooling in children with cerebral palsy.
The reviewers included only randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and controlled clinical trials (CCTs).
Six studies were included in the review.  Four were trials using botulinum toxin-A (BoNT-A) and two were trials on the pharmacological interventions, benztropine and glycopyrrolate.
No RCTs or CCTs were retrieved on surgery, physical, oro-motor and oro-sensory therapies, behavioural interventions, intra-oral appliances or acupuncture.
A meta-analysis of the studies eligible for review was not possible, so a descriptive summary was provided.
All studies showed some statistically significant change for treatment groups up to 1 month post intervention. However, there were methodological flaws associated with all six studies.
The authors concluded

It was not possible to reach a conclusion on the effectiveness and safety of either BoNT-A or the pharmaceutical interventions, benztropine and glycopyrrolate. There is insufficient evidence to inform clinical practice on interventions for drooling in children with CP. Directions for future research are provided.

Walshe M, Smith M, Pennington L. Interventions for drooling in children with cerebral palsy, Walshe M et al., Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2012, Issue 2, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD008624.pub2/abstract

Quick Link to All ID articles on CINAHL

Searching for articles on Intellectual Disability can be tricky because of all the other labels author's might use like Mental Retardation and Learning Disability.  To quickly get all the ID articles (before drilling down to specific issues within ID) I've created a link to a search that gathers all ID articles using all the terms. You just start your search with this link
Intellectual Disabilit(ies/y) OR Learning Disabilit(ies/y) OR Mental Retardation

It will open up the  CINAHL Database, run the search using all relevant terms.  Just add whatever other topic you need e.g. AND LEISURE, AND SPORT, AND EMPLOYMENT.

Happy Searching!!