Delinquency and association with behavioral disorders and substance abuse

Gustavo Manoel Schier Dória, Sérgio Antonio Antoniuk, Francisco Baptista Assumpção, Daniele Nascimento Fajardo, Maurício Nasser Ehlke

to determine the incidence and associations of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder (CD), and substance abuse disorder (SAD) in adolescents in conflict with the law in a Brazilian cohort. the Brazilian version of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Aged-Children (K-SADS-PL) was administered to 69 adolescent boys who were incarcerated for 45 days in the city of Curitiba, Brazil. mean age was 15.5 years (range, 12-16.9 years) and most adolescents originated from disadvantaged social classes (87%). They resided in neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city or towns in the greater metropolitan area. Truancy and low educational achievement were common, with 73.9% not currently attending school and 43.4% not having finished the 5th grade. The great majority lived in single-parent families and many had relatives who themselves had problems with the law. Psychiatric disorders were apparent in 81.1% of the subjects, with the most common disorders being CD (59.4%), SAD (53.6%), and ADHD (43.5%). Both ADHD (p <0.001) and CD (p <0.01) had significant associations with substance abuse. in male adolescents in conflict with the law, ADHD, CD, and SAD were all found to be associated with delinquency.