Conduct Disorder

What Is Conduct Disorder?

Conduct disorder is a condition in which an individual displays an ongoing pattern of uncooperative, rebellious, and aggressive behavior toward people in authority. Such individuals often bully, threaten, or intimidate others. They are often physically cruel to others, initiate physical fights, and may use weapons to cause physical harm to others. Such individuals engage in criminal behaviors such as stealing, forcing others into sexual activity, destroying property, and setting fires. Children and adolescents with conduct disorder often break rules and stay out at night, run away from home, and may be truant from school. This disorder can wreak havoc on the individual’s family and school, as well as the larger community.

Conduct disorder presents first in childhood or adolescence, and more often among males than females. A difficult childhood temperament, which predisposes children to impulsivity, irritability, and overactivity, may be associated with the development of conduct disorder. There is also some genetic basis for the development of conduct disorder; however, factors in a child’s or adolescent’s environment serve to increase the impact of genetic risk. The extent to which biological and environmental factors interact to influence the development of conduct disorder also appears to depend on the age of onset of the disorder.