The use of antipsychotic drugs to treat behaviours such as aggression and self-injury in people with intellectual disability is one of the most controversial issues in mental health.1 The need to treat these serious problems effectively has resulted in high rates of use of antipsychotic drugs in both community and inpatient settings.2 This trend has continued despite sparse evidence of drug efficacy for treating aggression in people with intellectual disability and the potential for long-term side-effects with both typical and atypical antipsychotics.3 For these and other reasons, researchers have continued to stress the urgent need for research. Thus the randomised controlled trial in today's Lancet by Peter Tyrer and colleagues6 is both timely and important.
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