Article Critique
Article Critique
My reason for selecting this article on “The DSM-5 With Limited Prosocial Emotions Specifier for Conduct Disorder Among Detained Girls,” stems from my interest in how lack of socialization can negatively impact the individual. Many times I have heard that a correlation exists between criminals and their tendency to be anti-social. Understanding if Limited Prosocial Emotion (LPE) would impact conduct disorder (CD), would help make sense of the connection between a lack of obedience in society being associated with a limited capability to properly socialize with others. By addressing this issue early, perhaps future criminals could receive therapy in earlier years to avoid excessive trouble as LPE begins to interfere with judgement resulting in worse crimes.
The following section will review the article “The DSM-5 With Limited Prosocial Emotions Specifier for Conduct Disorder Among Detained Girls.”
Background: The following study was developed with the intention to find out if there is evidence of limited prosocial emotion (LPE) diagnoses among the girls who are detained in the Belgian juvenile facility. In addition to conduct disorder CD, researchers looked to see if a diagnosis of LPE in addition to CD would create a higher likelihood of other psychiatric disorders among the detained young females. A study done in 2012 by Pardini using children who had oppositional defiance disorder (ODD) and CD, evidence was found that when these children were diagnosed with LPE+ CD their pretreatment conditions were much worse than those who only showed sign of CD.
Hypothesis: Individuals with a diagnosis of LPE + CD have worse psychiatric symptoms than those with just CD.
Methods: 191 females under the age of 18 who were detained at a youth detention center (YDC) in Belgium were selected for the study. A self-reported set of questionnaires were given to participants, which included the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD), Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU), Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI), Youth Self Report (YSR), and Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children-fourth version (DISC-IV).
Results: 118 girls out of the 191 met the criteria for CD; 31 out of the 118 girls met criteria for LPE in addition to CD when using the APSD test, but with when using the results of the ICU and YPI 44 reported a combination of the LPE+ CD symptoms. When both the ICU and the YPI are used in conjunction 56 of the 118 girls with CD also met criteria for LPE. when applying the "OR" rule and 26 out 118 girls showed LPE in addition to CD when applying the "AND" rule.
Conclusion
The findings from this study could be useful to the general population by ensuring that a proper diagnosis is selected when psychiatric symptoms are present. The extent of the trouble and challenges that individuals suffer are dependent on proper diagnosis, which could result in appropriate treatment options. Rather than blindly taking action in cases with delinquency, it would serve the individual and community to understand what is behind the delinquent behavior so that it could be addressed in an effective manner.
Critique
After reviewing the current article on the challenges in dealing with proper diagnosis of detained individuals I am not too impressed with the findings or the design in the study . The heavy use of self-reporting makes me question how much of the information provided was truly accurate. Finding a method to incorporate additional information from the parents, educators, or other adults in the lives of these females in confirming a diagnosis of what these girls suffer from would be helpful in actually providing treatment options.
