Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)

Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD) refers to the presentation of children with persistent irritability and frequent episodes of extreme behavioral dyscontrol. It has been recently added to the depressive disorders for children

up to 12 years of age in DSM 5.

What is disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD)?:Far beyond temper tantrums, DMDD is characterized by severe and recurrent temper outbursts that are grossly out of proportion in intensity or duration to the situation. These occur, onaverage, three or more times each week for one year or more. Between outbursts, children with DMDD display a persistently irritable or angry mood, most of the day and nearly every day, that is observable by parents, teachers, or peers. A diagnosis requires the above symptoms to be present in at least two settings (at home, at school, or with peers) for 12 or more months, and symptoms must be severe in at least one of these settings. During this period, the child must not have gone three or more consecutive months without symptoms. The onset of symptoms must be before age 10, and a DMDD diagnosis should not be made for the first time before age 6 or after age 18.

DMDD, a new diagnosis in DSM 5, why?

Researchers identified many problems in diagnosis of childhood bipolar disorder that necessitated the addition of DMDD as a new diagnostic category in DSM 5. These problems were reflected by the fact that diagnosis of bipolar disorder (BD) in children went up 4000% from 1994 to 2003. Such huge increase in BD diagnosis was thought to be caused by “loose” translation of DSM-IV (1994) criteria for BD when applied to children. Read more.............