36 The Professional Counselor™ Volume 12, Issue 1, Pages 36–48 http://tpcjournal.nbcc.org © 2022 NBCC, Inc. and Affiliates doi: 10.15241/gth.12.1.36 Gregory T. Hatchett Treatment Planning Strategies for Youth With Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder The addition of disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD) to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) was a controversial decision in 2013 and one that continues to the present. Researchers have found that DMDD exhibits both poor interrater reliability and discriminant validity from other common childhood-onset disorders, most notably oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). Research also indicates that DMDD might be better conceptualized as a component of ODD, and consistent with such a conceptualization, experts have recommended that effective treatments for ODD be applied to youth who fit the diagnostic pattern of DMDD. The purpose of this article is to help readers understand the problematic diagnostic validity associated with DMDD and to present recommended treatment strategies for working with youth who fit this challenging symptom profile. Keywords: disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, conceptualization, diagnostic validity, youth A pattern of emotional and behavioral dysregulation—characterized by severe irritability, temper outbursts, and aggressive behavior—is one of the most common reasons that children and adolescents are referred to mental health service providers (Axelson et al., 2012; Brotman et al., 2017; Stringaris et al., 2018) and a common antecedent to inpatient hospitalization (Chase et al., 2020; Rao, 2014). Despite the prevalence and severity of these associated symptoms, mental health professionals have often disagreed as to how children and adolescents who fit this symptom profile should be conceptualized and properly diagnosed. Over the years, chronic irritability and temper dysregulation have been conceptualized as associated features of externalizing disorders (Carlson, 1998), developmental variations of early-onset bipolar disorder (Biederman et al., 2000), and core features of an experimental research phenotype (Leibenluft et al., 2003; Rich et al., 2005; Stringaris et al., 2010). In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) provided a new diagnostic home for youth with chronic and severe irritability in the depressive disorders chapter in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; APA, 2013). This new disorder—disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD)—was specifically added to the DSM-5 to prevent clinicians from overdiagnosing a bipolar and related disorder in children and adolescents who exhibited non-episodic irritability and temper outbursts. Beginning in the 1990s, there began an exponential increase in the number of children and adolescents who were diagnosed with bipolar disorder. As just one example of this pattern, Moreno et al. (2007) reported a 40-fold increase of the number of outpatient office visits for children and adolescents treated for bipolar disorder between 1995–1996 and 2002–2003. Not only was this increase unusual from an epidemiological perspective (Van Meter et al., 2011), but researchers also began to accumulate evidence that these youth did not match the profile of either youth or adults with traditional bipolar disorder (Leibenluft, 2011; Towbin et al., 2013). To better characterize children and adolescents who exhibited chronic irritability and temper outbursts, researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (Leibenluft et al., 2003) developed a new diagnostic phenotype, severe emotional dysregulation (SMD), to differentiate this symptom pattern from traditional bipolar disorder. SMD subsequently became the foundation for the inclusion of DMDD in the DSM-5 (APA, 2013). Gregory T. Hatchett, PhD, NCC, LPCC-S, is a professor at Northern Kentucky University. Correspondence may be addressed to Gregory T. Hatchett, MEP 211, Highland Heights, KY 41099, hatchettg@nku.edu.
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