Adolescent Male Conduct-Disordered Patients in Substance Use Disorder Treatment: Examining the “Limited Prosocial Emotions” Specifier

Abstract

ABSTRACTTo our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-5-defined conduct disorder (CD) with limited prosocial emotions (LPE) among adolescents in substance use disorder (SUD) treatment, despite the high rates of CD in this population. We tested previously published methods of LPE categorization in a sample of male conduct-disordered patients in SUD treatment (N = 196). CD with LPE patients did not demonstrate a distinct pattern in terms of demographics or comorbidity regardless of the categorization method utilized. In conclusion, LPE, as operationalized here, does not identify a distinct subgroup of patients based on psychiatric comorbidity, SUD diagnoses, or demographics.