Disruptive Behavior Disorders

Disruptive behavior disorders are psychiatric disorders in which the hallmark feature is behavior that violates the rights of others and/or brings an individual into conflict with others or with society. Some examples of such behaviors include rule-breaking, defiance, aggression, and destruction of property. This chapter covers oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD), which are commonly considered disruptive behavior disorders, and also briefly discusses disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD) for the purpose of differential diagnosis. Each disorder is reviewed for symptoms, neurocognitive features, risk factors, and the prognosis. We then focus our discussion on how to assess the impact of disruptive behavior disorders on learning and how best to intervene to minimize such impact.