An a Severe Type of Disorder

Also, a successful diagnosis includes a hypothesis about the causal processes and a distinction between factors that caused the onset of CD and factors that preserve the disorder. This distinction is essential because the clinician has to focus on the factors that he can modify in his treatment plan.

The procedure

Stage One: Before any interview, the clinician sends to parents a questionnaire list and a comprehensive standardized rating scale list. Both lists must be completed by parents, teachers, and possible professional day-care giver and sent back to the clinician. If there are any previous medical evaluations from health care services, private psychologists or schools should be sent too. The questionnaire list gathers information about the child or teen concerning pregnancy (duration, complications, use of medication or substances, birth (type of delivery, newborn’s weight, length and health), developmental stages (motor, toilet training, language/communication and play), medical history (previous and current issues, medication used), behavioral problems (what issues and age first seen), possible treatment (evaluation of success or failure), major life events (divorce, family member loss, removal), school performance. There are similar questions about family (siblings, parents, family history).

In addition, Compressive Rating Scales are being used for the recent two decades for assessing a number of areas of adjustment than a single dimension of a child’s conduct. The most reliable are:

1. The Behaviour Assessment System for Children/Second Edition (BASC-2, Reynolds & Kamphaus 2004) is suitable for assessing a broad variance of adjustment difficulties in young people aged 2-21. BASC-2 has forms to be completed by parents, teachers, and children (8-21 y/o). Is has been standardized for use by mental health stuff in the USA.
2.  The Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA, Achenbach & Rescorla 2001) used worldwide for ages 1-18 y/o. It has many different forms of questionnaires to be completed by parents, caregivers and teachers, depending on the age of the child. There is also a Youth Self-Report for the youth of age 11-18.
3. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ, Goodman 1977) has been used less than ASEBA but its use is increasing. It has various forms for parents and teachers of children aged 3-16 y/o, and for self-completion by 11-17 y/o teens. It is free to download from www.sdqinfo.com.
4. The Conners’ Rating Scales-Revised (CRS-R, Conners 1997) focuses on externalizing problems. It provides forms for parents and teachers of youth of 3-17 y/o, and for adolescents.  

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