Compulsive behavior
- Compulsive behaviour.
- Our recent research shows that children and adults with Cornelia de Lange Syndrome show significantly more compulsive behaviours than children and adults with same degree of intellectual disability (see Box 'Compulsive beaviour'). This is potentially important and relevant to self-injurious behaviour because it has been suggested that compulsive behaviours are related to severe self-injury that the person finds difficult to control 33. A number of studies have suggested that self-injury in people with Cornelia de Lange Syndrome has a compulsive quality and is associated with compulsive behaviour 23, 27, 28. (This is discussed in detail in Chapter 5).
Compulsive behaviours have been defined as ‘repetitive, intentional behaviours that appear to follow certain rules’. According to some researchers as many as 87.5% of individuals with Cornelia de Lange Syndrome show at least one form of compulsive behaviour 23. The graph below shows that individuals with Cornelia de Lange Syndrome show significantly more compulsive behaviours than the comparison group. In particular, checking, ordering and ‘grooming’ are among the most common compulsive behaviours in individuals with the syndrome.