Disruptive, Impulse-Control, and Conduct Disorders: Overview
Basic characteristics of disorders that fall within the category of disruptive, impulse-control, and conduct disorders are aggressive and self-destructive behaviors, destruction of property, conflict with authority figures, disregard for personal or social norms, and persistent outbursts of anger disproportionate to the situation (APA, 2013). Behaviors within this category are behaviors that infringe upon or violate the rights of others or vary significantly from the norms of society.
It is important to understand that nearly all children and adolescents experience symptoms of defiance, disobedience, and breaking rules at some point in their childhood development. In disruptive, impulse-control, and conduct disorders the behaviors are much more frequent, pervasive and result in impairment to the individual’s lives. These behaviors also significantly exceed the normative behaviors for their culture, age and gender.
Diagnostic Considerations:
Although the underlying cause of these disorders vary, they all seem to share the common characteristics of problems in regulating behaviors and emotions. All of these disorders result in significant impairment in daily functioning. These disorders are less common in females than males and the age of onset tends to be in childhood or adolescence. It is considered very rare for these types of behaviors to first manifest themselves in adulthood. There appears to be a developmental relationship between conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder in that individuals who receive a diagnosis of conduct disorder in their preadolescent years frequently have been diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder at an earlier point in time. Approximately two thirds of children diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder still meet the diagnostic criteria three years later. One of the higher risk indicators for conduct disorder is an earlier onset and diagnosis of oppositional defiant disorder. Researchers have concluded that children are three times more likely to receive a diagnosis of conduct disorder if they were previously diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder. Also, mental health clinicians need to closely monitor clients with conduct disorder as there is a very strong connection between conduct disorder and antisocial personality disorder. Approximately 40% of individuals diagnosed with conduct disorder eventually meet the criteria for a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder.