Treatment of Oppositional Defiant Disorder

Treatment of Oppositional Defiant Disorder

Pediatricians and family physicians can refer parents to child and adolescent psychiatrists, who can diagnose and treat Oppositional Defiant Disorder and any coexisting psychiatric conditions. In fact, improving the symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder may be difficult without treating the coexisting disorder.

Stimulant medication is used to treat Oppositional Defiant Disorder only when a patient is also suffering from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Treatment of ODD generally consists of a variety of therapies and training programs that target not just the patient but parents and other people who are associated with the patient.

Patients may be treated with individual psychotherapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy (to develop more effective anger management and assist problem solving, respectively. Skills training helps patients improve interactions with their peers.

Special training programs can help teach parents how to manage their children’s behavior. They may use a system similar to the carrot-and-stick approach used in many classrooms, where students with behavioral problems are praised for good behavior and informed of consequences for bad behavior. Parents may also need to learn how to manage their own stress levels.

Family psychotherapy can help improve communication between a patient and his or her parents and siblings.

Parents of children afflicted with Oppositional Defiant Disorder should use great care in choosing a school and teacher for their child. See our special report on Public Education vs Mental Health.

Long Term Outlook

Few, if any, controlled studies have been done on the treatment outcome of oppositional defiant disorder. However, about three quarters of children with this diagnosis remain afflicted with it several years later.