Conduct Disorder

Conduct Disorder : Overview

Conduct disorder is a group of behavioral and emotional problems that usually begins during childhood or adolescence. Children and adolescents with the disorder have difficulty following rules and behaving in a socially acceptable way.

They may display aggressive, destructive, and deceitful behaviors that can violate the rights of others. Adults and other children may perceive them as “bad” or delinquent rather than as having a mental illness.

If your child has conduct disorder, they may appear tough and confident. In reality, however, children who have conduct disorder are often insecure and inaccurately believe that people are aggressive or threatening.

Types of conduct disorder

There are three types of conduct disorder. They’re categorized according to the age at which symptoms of the disorder first occur:

Childhood onset occurs when the signs of conduct disorder appear before age 10.
Adolescent onset occurs when the signs of conduct disorder appear during the teen years.
Unspecified onset means the age at which conduct disorder first occurs is unknown.

Some children will be diagnosed with conduct disorder with limited prosocial emotions. Children with this specific conduct disorder are often described as callous and unemotional.

Signs And Symptoms

Children who have conduct disorder are often hard to control and unwilling to follow the rules. They act impulsively without considering the consequences of their actions.

They also don’t consider other people’s feelings. Your child may have conduct disorder if they persistently display one or more of the following behaviors:

aggressive conduct
deceitful behavior
destructive behavior
violation of rules

Aggressive conduct

Aggressive conduct may include:

intimidating or bullying others
aggression to people or animals on purpose
forcing someone into sexual activity
using a weapon

Deceitful behavior

Deceitful behavior may include:

lying
breaking and entering
stealing
forgery

Destructive behavior

Destructive conduct may include arson and other intentional destruction of property.

Violation of rules

Violation of rules may include:

skipping school
running away from home
drug and alcohol use
sexual behavior at a very young age

Treating An Conduct Disorder

Children with conduct disorder living in abusive homes may be placed into other homes. If abuse isn’t present, your child’s mental health care professional will use behavior or talk therapy to help your child learn how to express or control their emotions appropriately.

The mental health care professional will also teach you how to manage your child’s behavior. If your child has another mental health disorder, such as depression or ADHD, the mental health care professional may prescribe medications to treat that condition as well.

Because it takes time to establish new attitudes and behavior patterns, children with conduct disorder usually require long-term treatment. However, early treatment may slow the disorder’s progression or reduce the severity of negative behaviors.

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