Conduct Disorder

Conduct Disorder
If your child has Oppositional Defiant Disorder, I am sure
you have often felt that things could not get much worse.
Well, in case you ever felt that way, I am going to put
things in perspective for you. We are now going to
discuss, Conduct Disorder.

Conduct Disorder is the most serious of all disruptive
behavior disorders in children and teens. This difficult
condition affects between 1 to 4 percent of children and
adolescents, is more common in boys than in girls, and
occurs more frequently in cities than in rural areas. Some
children may show signs of conduct disorder early
childhood, often during the preschool years.

Conduct Disorder often is viewed as a worse version of ODD,
however there are some differences. Oppositional Defiant
Disorder children tend to have worse social skills than
children with Conduct Disorder. Also, ODD children may be
difficult and defiant, but they usually have no desire to
deliberately harm others. Their difficult behavior is more
of a result of their frustration and their lack of
tolerance.

Children with Conduct Disorder do intentionally cause harm
to others, often for no real reason. Their antisocial
behavior may include vandalism and theft, and these
children terrorize their community. Usually by the age of
ten, these children have already been involved with illegal
activities on a frequent enough basis that they have
already had contact with the police.

Here is the official definition:

Conduct Disorder is a repetitive and persistent pattern of
behavior in which the basic rights of others or major
society rules are violated.

The diagnosis requires that at least three of the following
criteria be present in the last 12 months, and at least one
criterion must have been present in the last 6 months.

These are:

Aggression to people and animals:

-often bullies, threatens, or intimidates others

-often initiates physical fights

-has used a weapon that can cause serious physical harm to
others (a bat, brick, broken bottle, knife, gun)

-physically cruel to animals

-physically cruel to people

-has stolen while confronting a victim ( mugging, purse
snatching, extortion, armed robbery)

Destruction of property:

-has deliberately engaged in fire setting with the
intention of causing serious damage

-has deliberately destroyed other's property other than by
fire setting

Deceitfulness or theft:

-has broken into someone else's house, building or car

-often lies to obtain goods or favors or to avoid work

-has stolen items of nontrivial value without confronting a
victim (shoplifting, forgery)

Serious violations of rules:

-often stays out at night despite parental prohibitions,
beginning before 13 years of age

-has run away from home overnight at least twice without
returning home for a lengthy period

-often skips school before age 13

The main thing that separates ODD from conduct disorder is
the issue of danger. Oppositional defiant disorder children
can be exasperating for everyone around them. They argue,
they manipulative, they cause discord between parents, and
they disrupt the lives of everyone around them. But these
children are not dangerous. They do not harm others. With
conduct disorder children, safety is a major concern. They
are a threat to the body and possessions of those around
them.

If your child is showing signs of Conduct Disorder I do
want to leave you with some encouragement. It used to be
thought that conduct disorder children were just in the
early stages of a life long path of criminal behavior. We
know now that for most children this is not true.

Conduct Disorder children usually have multiple concurrent
psychiatric problems. Most commonly these children have
ADHD, but many also have bipolar disorder, depression,
learning disorders, and anxiety disorder. These other
disorders are the key to treatment.

Often when the other problems are addressed, the conduct
disorder behavior also improves.

This is true to such an extent, that treating concurrent
disorders is the major key to breaking the path of a
conduct disorder child to a career criminal. Therefore, if
your child does have conduct disorder, you absolutely must
find out all the other problems he has and treat them
aggressively. This is another reason why a good
evaluation is so essential.

If you suspect your child has Conduct Disorder, you should
take aggressive action. This is not the type of condition
that you want to wait around and hope your child will
outgrow.

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Anthony Kane, MD is a physician and international lecturer
who has been helping parents of children with ADHD and
Oppositional Defiant Disorder online since 2003. Get help
with Oppositional Defiant Disorder child behavior
(http://addadhdadvances.com/betterbehavior.html), help with
defiant teens (http://addadhdadvances.com/ntpcentral.html )
ADHD treatment
(http://addadhdadvances.com/childyoulove.html ) and ADHD
information.