The new psychiatric dignosis: disruptive mood dysregulation disorder

Abstract

The DSM-5, adopted in 2013, presents an updated list of affective disorders, which opens with a fundamentally new psychiatric diagnosis of a disruptive mood dysregulation disorder. Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder is diagnosed in children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 years and is manifested by chronic severe and persistent irritability or anger, as well as outbursts of anger disproportionate to the cause. It is obvious that the condition of a significant part of children and adolescents with a disruptive mood dysregulation disorder before the appearance of this diagnosis was mistakenly regarded as manifestations of bipolar disorder. The criterion of the fundamental difference between disruptive mood dysregulation disorder and bipolar disorder is the absence of manic or hypomanic in the first of them. Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder is characterized by high comorbidity and is often combined with oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder and attention deficit with hyperactivity, as well as anxiety. The course and prognostic significance of a disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, as well as the choice of the most effective methods of pharmacological treatment and psychotherapy require numerous further studies.