Management and Treatment of Conduct Disorder

When you know about the diagnosis of Conduct Disorder, start the treatment immediately before it’s too late.

Criteria Before Starting the Treatment 

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• Read about the Conduct Disorder: Overview, Signs and Diagnosis
• You have to consult the expert before starting the treatment.
• Follow the schedule given by the doctor.
• The symptoms of disorder must be present since 3 months and minimum at least one symptom can present since 6 months.
• You have to give cooperation to the team for child’s treatment.
• If needed as a parent at caregiver you have to change your prospectus, too.

Treatment Plan 

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• Once the disease gets diagnosed the child and his/her parents should send it to the child psychiatrist or psychologist.
• After analysing the whole report and the child’s condition they made a treatment plan.
• This treatment plan can mainly be divided into 3 parts.

1. Medications
2. Therapies
3. Sensory Integration

• Combination of all 3 can help in stabilizing and manage the child’s condition.
• They are following :

1. Medications 

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• The medications specially for conduct disorder are not available.
• The doctor can prescribe the medications after observing the patient’s condition and severity of the disorder.
• The medications which are given to the Conduct Disorder patient are similar to the ADHD patient.
• If the child is suffering from depression then the medication program decided according to that.
• If the disease is not that much severe then it can get cured by therapy sessions only.
• The most important thing is that first you must have to confirm that your child doesn’t have any allergy with medications and if it is present then first the parents have to do an allergy test before starting any medications.

2. Therapies

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• There are some therapies which used to treat the Conduct Disorder .
• They are following :

1. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)

• One of the most important and first line treatments of Conduct Disorder.
• The sessions of CBT can be decided according to the severity of Symptoms.
• The CBT can be given to patients to control the symptoms.
• It can help to calm down and also treat the behavioural symptoms like hitting,  self harming etc.
• Sometimes CBT can help parents also if they are suffering from depression.

2. Counselling

• It can be divided into 2 parts.

1. Child Counselling
2. Parental Counselling

1. Child Counselling 

• The child counselling can be given to the child to control the symptoms and yeah him/ her well social behaviour.
• It can also help the child to connect with family members, siblings and society.
• It helps children to get cured from depression also.
• The sessions of counselling therapy can be decided according to the severity of symptoms.

2. Parental Counselling 

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• Sometimes because a child is having Conduct Disorder their parents are suffering from depression or low mood issues or even anxiety.
• Due to child’s behavior, social unacceptance the parents get depressed.
• Counseling therapy helps the parents learn how to deal with the child and society.
• Even how to be calm and handle aggressiveness of the child.
• Parental counseling can make strong bonding between the parents and child.

3. Applied Behaviour Therapy (ABA)

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• Though this is not the first line treatment but it can help the child to become well behaved in society.
• The parents have to consult the ABA therapist for sessions.
• The sessions and duration can be decided by the therapist.
• In ABA therapy the child learns how to behave, react and get socialized.
• The ABA therapy includes many prospectus.
• The child has to forget their old behavior pattern and learn the new one.
• The main concept of ABA is to replace the old and terrible behavior pattern with new positive behavior.

4. Sensory Integration Therapy 

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• The SI is very helpful to treat the Conduct disorder.
• The SI therapy can help to resolve the issues related to senses like touch, smell, vision, taste etc.
• Sometimes because of these sensory issues the symptoms of the disorder become worse.
• This therapy can take a long time but it’s very helpful for the child.
• The sessions can be decided either on a daily or weekly basis.
• The SI can help to resolve the symptoms.
• It has a long term effect.

There are some other therapies also used along with these.

• They are following:

1. Music Therapy
2. Dance Therapy
3. Art Therapy
4. Group Therapy
5. Audio-visual Therapy

• The conduct disorder can not get totally cured but the symptoms can be managed.
• Be aware of disease, the behaviour pattern can be replaced but your child can not.