The validity of mixed disorders of conduct and emotions in children and adolescents: a research note

In a study of differential validity, three diagnostic groups based on ICD-10 criteria were compared, namely children with emotional disorders, children with conduct disorders, and children with mixed disorders of conduct and emotions. The patients were taken from a consecutive series of child and adolescent psychiatric service attenders from 1988 to 1992 and represented the total entire subgroups of patients with the respective diagnoses. Based on standardized item sheets that were filled out by the clinicians who were responsible for the respective cases, the groups were compared with regard to age, sex ratio, family background, premorbid behavioral abnormalities, abnormal psychosocial situations, and treatment. It was found that children with mixed disorders of conduct and emotions share many characteristics with pure conduct disordered children. It is concluded that the former group is a subgroup of the latter, and there is little evidence in this study supporting the validity of a separate category of mixed disorders of conduct and emotions.