What You Need To Know About
Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder
What is it?
Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder is described as having two key symptoms. The first symptom is severe temper outbursts and the second symptom is irritable or intense angry. The diagnosis has criteria for frequency (at least three outbursts per week), persistence (irritable/angry mood most of the day, nearly every day), duration (at least 12 months, with no more than 3 consecutive months without meeting symptom criteria), age (minimum age 6 years), age at onset (before age 10), and context (present in multiple settings). Finally, the disorder does have a relatively complicated set of diagnostic exclusion criteria, which include a requirement to use the disruptive mood dysregulation diagnosis when a child meets criteria for both disruptive mood dysregulation and oppositional defiant disorder (Axelson, 2013, para 2). Oppositional defiant disorder is a disorder that labels a child as being defiant and disobedient to authority figures.
Who can develop it?
Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder is most often found in children who are around the age of six. By the age of ten, the child is showing signs and symptoms of the disorder. It is believed that disruptive mood dysregulation disorder is a form of a bipolar disorder and it is not uncommon in children, even among toddlers and preschoolers. The symptoms are quite different from those observed in adults. According to research studies, the episodic nature of disruptive mood dysregulation disorder is often absent in young patients; mood changes – even within the hour – are much more common than in adults and aggressiveness, irritability, sleep disturbance and increased energy are the symptoms observed more often in children with a bipolar like disorder than in adults with the illness (Holtmann & Zepf, 2012, para 3). If you believe that your child is showing any of these symptoms, talk to your doctor today.
The Advantages of Assessing and Diagnosing Children with Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder
If you think your child has disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, it is important to seek treatment. Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder can impair a child’s quality of life and school performance and disrupt relationships with his or her family and peers. Children with disruptive mood dysregulation disorder may find it hard to participate in activities or make friends. Having disruptive mood dysregulation disorder also increases the risk of developing depression or anxiety disorders in adulthood (Klein, Lopes, & Roy, 2015, para 5). Children who have persistent, explosive irritability and recurrent temper outbursts are highly impaired and in need of evidence-based treatments. Further research on this topic is needed to guide the development of these treatments. Having your child assessed when symptoms begin or persists allows the child to enter treatment while the disorder is in its early stages; allowing them to have their symptoms controlled and giving them the ability to participate in normal childhood activates. The key is early diagnosis and immediate treatment.
The Disadvantage of Assessing and Diagnosing Children with Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder
One downside to a disruptive mood dysregulation disorder is that it is a new diagnosis. There are no informative clinical trials from which to establish sensible treatment options. However, rational clinical guidelines may be distilled from treatment studies in disorders that share main inclusion criteria with disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, ignoring exclusion criteria. Some indirect treatment recommendations are possible based on treatment studies of children with similar severe mood dysregulation for whom a range of treatments, psychopharmacological and psychosocial, have been examined (Klein, Lopes, Roy, 2015, para 7). Therefore, effective treatment methods are still being researched and discovered. The best form of treatment that can be used at this point is individualize treatment plan. Cognitive behavioral therapy and psychosocial interventions are what is currently recommended for treatment (Klein, Lopes, Roy, 2015, para 9). Another downside to the disruptive mood dysregulation disorder is that it may overlap other mood disorders in children including oppositional defiant disorder, ADHD, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, autism, and intermittent explosive disorder (Axelson, 2013, para 4). That can make it difficult to make out a diagnosis of disruptive mood dysregulation disorder.
Reference
Axelson, D. (2013). Taking disruptive mood dysregulation disorder out for a test drive. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 170(2). 136-139.
Holtmann, M., & Zepf, F. (2012). Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder. Textbook of Child and Adolescent Mental Health [Online Edition].
Klein, G. R., Lopes, V., & Roy, A. (2015). Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder: A new diagnostic approach to chronic irritability in youth. American Journal of Psychiatry, 171(9), 918-924.