Disruptive Mood Dysregulation: What Is It And How Is It Treated?

Behaviour Disorder Symptoms, Features and Therapies. Who is the child neuropsychiatrist, and what does he do? Your child is always irritable; often, his behaviour is out of control. He manifests severe anger outbursts, definitely exaggerated compared to the context in which they are inserted. Sometimes, he destroys items he finds around the house, so you’ve had to place your crystal ornaments on the shelves so he can’t reach them easily.

During one of his outbursts of anger, he even went so far as to hurt you by throwing a stone at you one day. Because? Simply because after spending an entire afternoon on the playground, it was time to go home. He threw a tantrum in hopes of convincing you to stay a little longer, but in the face of your impassiveness, he rebelled and threw a stone at you and hit you.

What Are Behavioural Disorders?

The behaviour disorders involve the emotional, relational and personal autonomy of the child. These are ways of behaviour that become dysfunctional. In elementary words, because of his behaviour, the child sees the quality of his life and that of his parents impoverished.

Warning: lively or temperamental children are not necessarily children who have a behaviour disorder; however, when these behavioural modalities become very frequent, marked and are configured as the essential attitude of the child, then yes, we are talking about behavioural disorders.

What Is Disruptive Mood Dysregulation?

Mood dysregulation means not being able to regulate emotional reactions to the situations the child is experiencing. There is also an inability to adapt one’s behaviour to the demands of the surrounding environment. There is little ability to consider other people’s points of view.

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What Are The Symptoms Of Disruptive Mood Dysregulation?

Meanwhile, difficulty in controlling and managing one’s emotions. For example, let’s think about sadness; it is expressed dramatically by the child. If they receive “no” to a reprimand, children with disruptive mood dysregulation begin to scream. They are inconsolable. We call these “emotional storms”. At the same time, these children have an urgent need to meet their needs: in practice, they want everything at once. Therefore, there is a claim to be a priority over everything and everyone.

What Are The Most Frequent Behaviours Of Children With Disruptive Mood Dysregulation?

The classic example is the child you see at the supermarket. In the presence of strangers or more formal situations, some children begin to shout, be bizarre or powerfully provocative about the context in which they find themselves. These children do not realize what other people’s point of view is.

The symptoms of disruptive mood dysregulation are also manifest when children hit their classmates, get distracted, do not listen to the lessons, do not complete the work, talk all the time, disturbing everyone, and do not remain seated on the chair. Under these circumstances, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder almost overlaps with Adhd, but the difference is in the behavioural pattern.

What Does Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Involve?

Children who have a behaviour disorder often exhibit these difficulties in multiple contexts (at home, at school, at gymnastics, at football). Sometimes, even their academic performance suffers. That is, it is not up to the level of their cognitive skills and their intellectual capacity. Therefore, these behaviours invalidate these children’s social, mental, academic, emotional, and relational performances.

Among the main characteristics of disruptive mood, dysregulation is aggression, anger, oppositionality, provocation, transgression of the rules (children who do not know how to respect social and moral norms). Let’s imagine these behaviours projected into the future: they can have antisocial behaviours as they get older.

Is There Comorbidity With Other Disorders?

Disruptive behaviour and conduct are often associated with ADHD and mood disorders. Due to the behaviour disorder, these children can then present a natural depression because they are rejected by others or have learning disabilities (they can find it difficult to follow the teachers’ instructions in the classroom).

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How Does Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Differ From Oppositional Defiant Disorder?

In the child with disruptive mood dysregulation, a relative tranquillity and greater availability are alternated with moments in which there is a complete loss of control, an irrepressible explosion. In oppositional defiant disorder, however, inevitable outbursts of anger and aggression can occur every day and several times a day.

What Are The Risk Factors For Disruptive Mood Dysregulation?

Indeed, there is a biological component; then, the environmental and family context must be considered. There are social factors related to poverty, reduced emotional regulation; conflicts in the family; drug abuse; the absence of educational stimuli. It is good to remember that the educational aspect can modulate this type of disorder.

What Therapies Are Recommended For Children With Disruptive Mood Dysregulation?

First of all, it is necessary to contact a child neuropsychiatrist. The most effective treatment is parent training, i.e. parents are helped by a multidisciplinary team to manage the child’s dysfunctional behaviours. And if there is a component of mood, it is also possible to associate a drug that can help it.

Child Neuropsychiatrist

First of all, you must know that to become a child neuropsychiatrist. One must graduate in medicine and surgery, enrol in the professional register of doctors and surgeons and, finally, complete the four-year specialization school in child neuropsychiatry.

The child neuropsychiatrist deals with the diagnosis and treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders or developmental psychopathologies, which can, therefore, manifest themselves in the period of childhood and adolescence, or up to 18 years of age. Speech disorders, intellectual disability and genetic syndromes, conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, high-risk mental states and psychosis, tic disorders. Now that you have a clear understanding of who the child neuropsychiatrist is and what he does, let’s analyze a sentence in which his intervention is required.

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