Unemotional callous traits in disruptive behaviour disorders: let's talk about oppositional defiant disorder

Callous unemotional traits: what are they? Several variables have been considered in the study of Disruptive Behaviour Disorders, ranging from biological to more purely psychosocial factors, and psychological and neuroscientific observations have been proposed that can partly describe the mechanisms at the origin of the behavioural difficulties encountered during development

Oppositional Defiant-Provocative Disorder (ODD) and Conduct Disorder (CD) may be in association, since the presence of oppositional-provocative behaviour has been significantly observed in young people who subsequently developed conduct problems, however there is no unanimous consensus that an Oppositional Defiant Disorder present during childhood will necessarily evolve into a Conduct Disorder.

Disruptive Behaviour Disorders and Callous Unemotional Traits

Another factor taken into consideration in the study of Disruptive Behaviour Disorders concerns callous-unemotional (CU) traits, always considered crucial elements in psychopathy (Frick, 2008) and characteristic of those subjects, children and adolescents, who show a lack of guilt, lack of empathy and emotional superficiality, and who can be considered a specific subgroup of Disruptive Behaviour Disorders with an increased risk of evolving into an antisocial personality.

The callous-emotional traits were examined in order to understand the reasons behind the emotional dysregulation found in some individuals with conduct problems while others do not, and the role that aggression plays in such emotional manifestations.

What characterises unaemotional callous traits?

The insensitivity to the experiences of others, the absence of guilt and thus the tendency to manipulate that is found in individuals with callous-anemotional traits, lead to the idea that aggression is instrumental in achieving one’s own goals (proactive aggression) and thus it is rare to see excessive emotional dysregulation.

Conversely, individuals with problems in the sphere of conduct who do not display callous-emotional traits show reactive aggression that manifests itself following activating social situations (provocation, humiliation, etc.) and has been associated with unfavourable environmental contexts and inefficient parental care (Wootton, 1997).

The difficulty in emotional regulation may have its origin in a strong susceptibility to emotionally activating social situations that results in impulsive acts following which the child/adolescent, without callous-emotional traits, may feel repentance.

Callous (lack of guilt and empathy) and unemotional (superficial emotions) traits (CU) are part of the concept of psychopathy: a study

They define a specific subgroup of Disruptive Behaviour Disorders (DCD), at increased risk of an antisocial evolution.

“We explored,” report the University of Messina researchers, “the implications of psychopathy and CU traits in a clinical sample with DCD and in an epidemiological sample.

The clinical sample included 81 patients diagnosed with DCD (aged 6 to 16 years), while the epidemiological sample included 214 students (aged 6 to 14 years) who were screened for behavioural disorders with a teacher-compiled instrument (Strength and Difficult Questionnaire), on the basis of which 19 of them were found to have a significant disruptive behaviour disorder.

All measures of psychopathy and the CU dimension were found to distinguish the 19 subjects selected for behaviour disorders from the rest of the school sample.

The same variables, regardless of principal diagnosis (oppositional defiant disorder or conduct disorder) and comorbidity, distinguished the clinical sample from the non-pathological subjects in the school sample.

In the clinical sample, psychopathic and CU traits were not influenced by comorbidity.

The subjects identified from the school sample for conduct disorder and the patients with DCD from the clinical sample had a similar distribution of both psychopathic and CU traits.

Psychopathy and CU traits may be a central element in the identification of higher-risk DCD subjects in both clinical and non-clinical populations.

These variables can be explored with standardised instruments specific to developmental age.

Read Also:

Emergency Live Even More…Live: Download The New Free App Of Your Newspaper For IOS And Android

What You Need To Know About Substance Use Disorder

Seasonal Depression Can Happen In Spring: Here’s Why And How To Cope

Don’t Ban Ketamine: The Real Prespective Of This Anaesthetic In Pre-Hospital Medicine From The Lancet

Intranasal Ketamine For The Treatment Of Patients With Acute Pain In ED

Delirium And Dementia: What Are The Differences?

The Use Of Ketamine In Pre-Hospital Setting – VIDEO

Ketamine May Be Emergency Deterrent For People At Risk Of Suicide

Everything You Need To Know About Bipolar Disorder

Drugs To Treat Bipolar Disorder

What Triggers Bipolar Disorder? What Are The Causes And What Are The Symptoms?

Bipolar Disorders And Manic Depressive Syndrome: Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Medication, Psychotherapy

Source:

Università di Messina

You might also like