COMORBIDITY OF CONDUCT DISORDER AND PERSONALITY-DISORDERS IN AN INCARCERATED JUVENILE POPULATION

Objective: Youths with conduct disorder extract an inordinate amount o f time and money from the U.S. judicial system and taxpayers, yet stud ies pertaining to this population have been few. This study was undert aken to examine the co-occurrence of personality disorders and conduct disorder in a group of incarcerated children and adolescents and to r aise the issue of the possibility of antisocial personality disorder i n persons under the age of 18 years. Method: One hundred incarcerated juvenile offenders aged 11-17 years were randomly selected and then in terviewed with the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents-R evised and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R Personality Disorders to establish their psychiatric diagnoses. Results: Eighty-s even percent of the group met the criteria for conduct disorder. Among those diagnosed as having conduct disorder, the only comorbid persona lity disorder that was present with significant frequency was antisoci al personality disorder. The other comorbid personality disorder diagn oses that appeared most frequently were the borderline, narcissistic, paranoid, passive-aggressive, and dependent types. Borderline personal ity disorder was observed more frequently in the females than in the m ales with conduct disorder. Conclusions: The findings suggest that by using DSM-III-R criteria for adult personality disorders, one finds a considerable number of personality disorders in a young population wit h conduct disorder. The findings also show that youths manifest signs of antisocial personality disorder before they are 18 years of age, ra ising the question of how age should be incorporated into the diagnosi s of personality disorder as DSM-IV is being prepared.