Assessment of Prevalence of Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder and its Comorbidities in Nine- to Twelve-Year-Old Male Students in Bushehr

One of the controversial disorders recently introduced in DSM-5 is Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD). The main symptoms of DMDD include regular outbursts, verbal and behavioral anger, and constant irritability. The present study aims to explore the prevalence of DMDD and its associated disorders

The study population included all 9-12-year-old students(Grades 3 to 6 elementary)in the academic year 2018-19 in Bushehr County. Accordingly, 2,063 students were selected through two-stage cluster sampling to fill out the researcher-made anger and irritability questionnaire and the CSI-4 Questionnaire and to participate in a clinical interview based on DSM-5.

Study results showed that the prevalence of DMDD among children is 6.1 percent. According to the multivariate logistic regression, the rates of comorbidity with DMDD for other disorders include ADHD (P=0.01, OR=2.03), ODD (P=0.000, OR=5.96), CD (P=0.003, OR=3.52), GAD (P=0.000, OR=7.99), and social anxiety (P=0.001 and OR=2.32). Moreover, depression and demographic features had no significant predictive power for this disorder.

The study results showed that the prevalence of disruptive mood dysregulation disorder was close and similar to DSM-5 criteria and showed high comorbidity with emotional and behavioral disorders