Conduct disorder

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Can you inform me if the syndrome "Conduct disorder" is similar to "Autism disorder" and if the treatments are the sames?
Themis

Well, the simularity is that in both cases individuals can be PERCEIVED as having ill intentions. But the difference is that in case of conduct disorder they very much DO have ill intentions while in case of autism or Asperger it is misperception. People with conduct disorder are criminals who are a physical threat to health and safety of others. People with autism or Asperger are very innocent and naive who wouldn't harm a bug, but due to their lack of social skills they might do something socially inappropriate without being aware of it, and thus people who don't know what autism or Asperger is might misperceive them as having ill intentions when they don't.

but Conduct Disorder implies conduct- meaning learned behavior. Autism arises from a neurological disorder. so, while one may have autism and develop a conduct disorder, they are not "similar" as "treatments" but a person being treated for autism may also be treated for a comorbid conduct disorder.

Conduct disorder is a specific behavior disorder within DSM, that includes repeated cruelty twoards other people or animals, using a weapon, lying, stealing, truancy, running away from home (for children, the diagnosis is mostly made in childhood since most adults with these symptoms can be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder), etc. It isn't just a disorder of behavior, ie. being annoying to others or something. It is also presumed to be deliberate.

As for treatment, I hav eno clue what the treatme tfor CD is. I read up on behavior disorders a bit when I was being evaluated for my second AS dx, because I feared being diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder (another disorde rint he same category but less severe). For ODD, treatment does involve a lot of external structure (that we are supposed ot need, too), but I'm afraid they just mean a parent/professional who always tells you what to do and uses a very authoritarian voice (many people confuse authoritarian with clear and tell me they are "giving me clarity" when really they are bitching at me), and there is a lot of mumbo-jumbo about "it's your choice how you act", blah blah. Guess this wouldn't do most autistics any good.

As said above, Conduct Disorder is a DSM diagnosis involving cruelty, theft, and other antisocial behaviors. It applies to adolescents in general, and the behaviors are done with an awareness that they are antisocial, and often the kid with CD will lie about having stolen, been cruel, or cheating. In other words, a kid with CD is capable of the kind of social interactions and nonverbal communication that someone with an ASD is not.

Conduct disorder almost always includes not only socially unacceptable acts but also illegal acts. ASDs may include socially unacceptable acts but typically not illegal. The kid with CD knows what he is doing and how society views it, whereas the person with an ASD does not. The kid with CD may as an adult be diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder (about 1/3 end up there), whereas the kid with an ASD will become an adult with an ASD.

CD, and its cousin OPD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder) can be addressed with therapy (cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy are popular these days) and medication, with varying degrees of success.

There is little similarity between CD and ASDs. A clinician would distinguish the two immediately. More important, an ASD is typically visible in a baby or toddler, whereas CD won't appear clearly until later, and the kid with CD may hide it effectively from parents or other adults for years. A kid with an ASD can't hide it, and probably would not be aware that there was anything to hide.

so CD is really just a pattern of learned behaviors? or is it a brain disorder?

the way my NLVD son describes his step-brother it makes me suspect his behavior is pathological, so I wonder if it could be CD. the kid isn't even 15 and lies, runs away from home, bullies my kid, physically attacked my ex, punched through a door, smokes (cigarettes supplied by the adults in the house)... most of these behaviors are ones my son engaged in because they were modeled for him and encouraged by his dad, but therapy has helped him develop an awareness that his behaviors were unacceptable and life skill coaching has given him new strategies.

my son lives there and it really bothers me.

CD is not learned the way calculus is learned. People are predisposed, what nowadays researchers call "nature via nurture". hort of extreme psychological trauma, no one can teach you to have sociopathic traits without you're having some underlying predisposition. Some people who want to be included or accepted among those with conduct disorder may also engage in such behaviors, but they would not be diagnosed as such by a competent clinician.

CD probably arises from deficits in the amygdala. The amygdala of people with antisocial PD light up like Christmas trees on imaging studies (the amygdala is that little part of the brain that controls fear response).

People with an ASD also have problems with the amygdala, but they're obviously different as the behaviour is different between the several conditions under the two headings (antisocial and asocial disorders).

Both have an empathy deficit, but the manifestation of this is different too; insensitive for antisocial and naive for the ASD group.

thanks for the info. it disturbs me to think that my son lives with a kid who might have CD. my ex is the most narcissistic person I know next to my mother, and seriously not just clueless, but just doesn't care how other people feel. descriptions of him as a teen sound like CD.

A friend of mine in the 101st AB had a conduct disorder.... got busted twice from seargent down to private for drunk&disorderly.

WHUT?

That's the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the topic... sorry.

What Roman said is so so true!

Autism and conduct disorder can co-exist. It's just that the autistic guy with CD probably won't be getting away with very much of his antisocial behavior, since he isn't very good at lying about it, and probably obviously weird on top of it.

They're not any more common together than apart, though. If you see them together, it's more the luck of the draw than any particular connection. Autistic people are statistically less violent than NTs (probably because we tend to have less social contact and thus less opportunity to be violent).

Callista, that's pretty much it. The same with the person who has OCD and autism; the OCD will be far more evident as the person in question won't bother hiding the socially "inappropriate" compulsions.

(I'm still trying to figure out where the person with an ASD who so happens to have both deficits in empathy fits in, and who isn't a "bad" person due to a lack of antisocial acts.)

O, and it's not good to put people with an ASD and CD together (groups homes, work places, schools, and whatever), as the person with an ASD can be easily coerced into doing illegal things, even though they wouldn't ever do such without the manipulation.

Thanks for the answers...but can you inform me if the serious violations of rules of teenagers autists as my son who is a inocent person are

.runs away from home
.often truant from school
.Intensive stimming

All that indicate a comorbid conduct disorder
themis

It isn't that simple of course. Both antisocial PD/conduct disorder and autism have other contributing factors, too. In CD/APD, for example, family dynamics and genetics influence each other. For example, there is this gene that controls MAO A (an enzyme that destroys excess serotonin/dopamine/noradrenaline), and this gene may be defective in APD/CD, so that not enough MAO A is produced. This genetic deficit, however, only resulted in APD/CD in people who also lived in dysfunctional families; those who lived in normal families, had the genetic defect but not the disorder. I have not heard whether thsi gene also is involved in autism, by the way.

Autism also of course has other contributing factors (genetic, neurological, etc.) besides amygdala problems. So it isn't like oh we have two disorders affecting the same brain area but presenting differently in behavior, wow that's interesting. The brain and genes are so complex that many factors will contribute to one's eventual phenotype.

thats not enough to count as a conduct disorder, and stimming has nothing to do with it. its a symptom of autism. he probablly doesnt want to go to school because school can be hell for someone with autism. and id run away for home too if i had a parent blaming my stimming on antisocial behavior. thats redicilous.