A behavioural approach to the treatment of non-retentive encopresis in adults with learning disabilities.

Problems such as encopresis are perceived as "normal' for some populations. For example, within the field of learning disability, little serious study has been devoted to either prevalence or aetiology of encopresis. Treatment issues have been obscured by problems of definition and aetiology. Treatment reports are rare despite the apparent magnitude of the problem, and involve a disproportionate number of cases with a mild intellectual disability or secondary encopresis. The following report describes a reinforcement-based treatment programme for primary, non-retentive encopresis in five young adult men with mainly more severe learning disabilities. Major soiling accidents were eliminated in four out of five cases and substantially reduced in the fifth. Treatment times were long. Issues relating to the use of aversive techniques are discussed, as are the limitations of the present study.