An LSU study shows high social and economic costs occur when there is a failure to diagnose and treat conduct disorder in kids. LSU psychology professor Paul Frick details the symptoms of conduct disorder.

“Being aggressive to stealing and destroying people’s property, just breaking major rules, like skipping school, truancy, running away from home,” said Frick.

The study found that the long term cost of not treating conduct disorder in kids is seven times higher than that of ADHD, a much more widely known disorder.

Frick says all kids can be a handful, but parents need to compare their kids’ behavior to their classmates. If your child stands out, he advises counseling.

Frick says kids who exhibit more severe levels of conduct disorder and are not treated early, can burden society later after they fail to find success socially and economically.

“They start becoming anxious and depressed, because they just can’t seem to succeed and they can’t seem to stay out of trouble, they are at risk for abusing substances, they often drop out of school,” said Frick.

Conduct disorder affects about three percent of school children nationwide.

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