Aggressive conduct disorder of children. The clinical picture.

Aggressive conduct disorder, defined broadly on the basis of fighting, disobedience, destructiveness, and meanness, was diagnosed in 65 out of 136 boys and 17 of 43 girls consecutively admitted to a psychiatric clinic. Psychotic, brain damaged, and seriously retarded children were excluded from the series. Boys and girls with conduct disorder differed significantly from those with other diagnoses on a number of noncriterion symptoms, particularly those grouped as reactive and egocentric. Boys with conduct disorder were more often involved in antisocial behavior, girls in precocious sexual behavior. The study presents a more detailed clinical picture of the disorder, and suggests that the presence of specific antisocial behavior may be a useful criterion for dividing affected boys into two roughly equal subgroups.