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Externalizing Disorders

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Abstract

Youth with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD), referred to together in this chapter as externalizing disorders (ED), represent a sizeable population of youth, and exhibit high rates of comorbidity with other psychiatric disorders, including anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, substance use disorders, and neurodevelopmental disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. This chapter begins with a discussion of background and etiology of ODD and CD, including associated comorbid diagnoses and health-related behavior problems. We then review considerations for assessment under various real-world conditions. Next, we discuss the treatment literature for youth with ED, with an emphasis on implications for process-oriented intervention. We follow this section with considerations for working across systems to meet the unique and complex need of the population of youth with ED. Then, we provide a case vignette describing the course of treatment for a 9-year-old boy with ODD who was treated in an integrated primary care setting. Last, we close with a discussion of our conclusions and suggestions for future directions for working with families coping with ED.

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O’Dell, S.M., Marx, J.M., Parikh, M. (2018). Externalizing Disorders. In: Forman, S., Shahidullah, J. (eds) Handbook of Pediatric Behavioral Healthcare. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00791-1_11

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