Physical Health of Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Vee Prasher is from Derby, UK and completed his medical training at Birmingham Medical School, UK. He is now Visiting Professor of Neuropsychiatry at Liverpool John Moore University and Consultant Psychiatrist in Neuro-developmental Psychiatry (South Birmingham NHS PCT). His research interests include investigating aspects of biological, physical and psychiatric health morbidity in adults with learning disability; in particular in adults with Down syndrome. Over the last 20 years he has been involved in research investigating the aetiology, diagnosis and the treatment of Alzheimer's disease in older adults with Down syndrome. His MMedSc degree investigated the validity of visual evoked potentials in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease in adults with Down syndrome and his MD thesis investigated physical, psychiatric and social morbidity in over 200 adults with Down syndrome. His PhD investigated a number of biological measures for Alzheimer's disease in adults with Down syndrome.He is currently involved in a number of treatment trials for dementia in adults with Down syndrome, including genetic, biological and neuroimaging studies. He has published 13 books and over 100 articles.

Matthew P. Janicki, Ph.D. is the co-chair of the US National Task Group on Intellectual Disabilities and Dementia Practices, as well as a research associate professor in the Department of Disability and Human Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the director for technical assistance for the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Developmental Disabilities and Health at the University. Formerly, he was director for aging and special populations for the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, and was the project director of an effort that provided the World Health Organization with a series of background reports on promoting longevity among adults with intellectual disabilities throughout the world. He was the founding editor of the Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities.