Effects of intellectual functioning on cognitive behavioural anger treatment for adults with learning disabilities in secure settings

Anger has been shown to be associated with aggression and violence in adults with learning disabilities in both community and secure settings. Emerging evidence has indicated that cognitive behavioural anger treatment can be effective in reducing assessed levels of anger in these patient populations. However, it has been suggested that the effectiveness of these interventions is significantly affected by verbal ability. In this service evaluation study the pre- and post-treatment and 12-month follow-up assessment scores of 83 offenders with learning disabilities who received cognitive behavioural anger treatment were examined in order to investigate whether participants' responsiveness to treatment was a function of measured verbal IQ. The results indicate that, overall, the effectiveness of anger treatment was not the result of higher verbal ability as reflected in verbal IQ scores. It is concluded that cognitive behavioural therapy for anger control problems can be effective for people with moderate, mild and borderline levels of intellectual functioning and forensic histories.