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

ABSTRACT

To 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.

KEYWORDS:

• callousness
• conduct disorder
• limited prosocial emotions
• psychopathy
• uncaring
• unemotional

Funding

This work was supported by grants DA011015 and DA021913 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse; Dr. Sakai's lab is supported by R01DA031761 and by the Kane Family Foundation and the Hewit Family Foundation. Dr. Salomonsen-Sautel received support from grant T32AA007464. Dr. Hopfer receives support from R01DA035804 and K24DA032555. Dr. Mikulich-Gilbertson's effort is supported by DA034604. The funders had no further role in study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the paper for publication.