[Quality of life of adolescents with conduct disorder: gender differences and comorbidity with oppositional defiant disorder].

BACKGROUND

Quality of life is the individuals' subjective evaluation of their general well-being, including physical and mental health, social relationships and everyday functionality. The aim of our study was to examine conduct disorder in terms of gender differences in prevalence, and relationship to quality of life domains in the presence or absence of comorbid oppositional defiant disorder.

METHODS

Altogether 392 adolescents, aged 13-18 years (M=14.5; SD= 1.37), participated in this study. The members of the clinical group were selected from Vadaskert Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Hospital, Budapest, Hungary with externalizing symptoms in their case history. The control group was selected from public schools in Budapest, Hungary. Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview Kid was used to diagnose conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder, and parent and adolescent version of the Inventory of Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents (Inventar zur Erfassung der Lebensqualität bei Kindern und Jugendlichen) was used to measure the children's quality of life.

RESULTS

In this sample 8.5% of adolescents were diagnosed with conduct disorder, of which 52.9% had a comorbid oppositional defiant diagnosis. Conduct disorder diagnosis was only present in the clinical group, 9 of participants with such diagnosis were male and 24 were female. Girls with conduct disorder evaluated their family life domain (p<0.01) and their global quality of life (p<0.05) lower than the boys. Compared to adolescents without comorbid oppositional defiant disorder diagnosis, adolescents with conduct disorder and comorbid oppositional defiant disorder had significantly worse quality of life in the domain of time spent alone (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Conduct disorder is associated with decreased quality of life. The presence of comorbid oppositional defiant disorder correlates with lower quality of life in several domains. These findings are considerable for the clinical management of these externalizing disorders.