Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder is a new introduction in the DSM-V under depressive disorders. Although this disorder is listed among the depressive conditions, a distinguishing factor is that it usually starts during childhood. The following are the diagnostic criteria of the disorder.
Temper outbursts that are out of proportion and which are recurrent in nature happemning atleast 3 times a week.
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Before the outbursts, the child has an irritable/ angry mood throughout the whole day and the mood is observable by other people.
The symptoms must be present for more than 12 months and the child should be not be symptom free for more than 3 consecutive months.
The child must display the symptoms in at least 2 settings between home, school and with peers
Diagnosis should be not be done before 6 years and not later than 18 years.
Symptoms don’t occur during an episode of major depressive disorder and cannot be explained by any other mental disorder (Rao, 2014).
This disorder is known to occur in children. Usual age of being diagnosed with the condition is between 6-18 years.
Some of the differential diagnosis that I would make for this condition include; post-traumatic stress disorder, autism, separation anxiety disorder, and persistent depressive disorder.
Currently there is no specific treatment for the disorder. However, DMDD can be treated by a combination of both behavioral and pharmacological treatment (Rao, 2014). Behavioral therapy in this case refers to use of psychotherapy which would help the child identify the triggers of the symptoms and also help with adherence of treatment. Pharmacological agents that can be used include lithium and risperidone. However, none of these agents has been shown to be efficacious in the treatment of the disease as residual symptoms persist.
Reference
Rao, U. (2014). DSM-5: Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder. Asian Journal Of Psychiatry , 11 , 119-123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2014.03.002
