ODD stands for Oppositional Defiant Disorder. There is no clear cause for the development of ODD, although there are a number of medical theories. Unfortunately, mental health care is not exact medicine and still uses assumptions and theories. There are a number of medically demonstrable abnormalities in patients with ODD.
Causes for ODD
According to the medical world, causes can be:
- An imbalance between certain chemicals in the brain
- Heredity
- Congenital brain damage
- Abuse and/or neglect
- A combination of the above causes
According to Trimbos, there are the following causes:
- ostracism by peers
- negative parent/child interaction
- joining peers with criminal behavior.
These environmental factors that increase the likelihood that the child will develop a conduct disorder appear objectively to be the consequence of the conduct disorder rather than the cause.
An imbalance between certain chemicals in the brain
People with ODD deal with abnormal levels of parachemical neurotransmitters. This is the case with almost all mental disorders. The chemical imbalance in the brain is something that definitely needs more research. Psychiatric medications all affect the levels of parachemical neurotransmitters in the brain. Nowadays it is suspected that the reasoning that eliminating this abnormality resolves the psychological disorder is somewhat too simplistic.
Heredity
ODD is more common in families where one parent has a mental disorder, so there is likely a hereditary component. This disorder in the parent does not have to be ODD. Even if one of the parents suffers from ADHD, depression, personality disorders, Tourette’s syndrome or anxiety disorders, the risk of ODD is greater.
Errors in the hereditary material on chromosome 2 and chromosome 19 appear to play a role in the development of ODD. Now this is less intense than it sounds. Errors on chromosomes are very common, to give an example:
- At least 131 genetic abnormalities have their origins in an abnormality on chromosome 1
- At least 80 genetic abnormalities have their origins in an abnormality on chromosome 3
- At least 50 on chromosome 4
- At least 61 on chromosome 5, etc, etc.
Congenital brain damage
Children with ODD all have delayed cognitive skills in the areas of emotional regulation, social information processing and in many cases also language processing. The latter does not always mean that they have a language delay, but that they have more difficulty understanding what is meant. They also often have problems with organization and planning, a coordination development disorder (DCD) and a certain rigidity in their thinking. This indicates damage in the frontal and prefrontal areas of the brain. Research shows that the frontal lobe of the brain is smaller in many children with ODD.
MRI recordings (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) or a PET scan (Positron Emission Tomography) should therefore show disturbed brain function or a smaller frontal lobe. Unfortunately, MRI/PET scans are rarely or not used in psychiatry.
Upbringing
Only severe neglect or abuse can be a reason to develop ODD. Furthermore, studies on parenting methods as a cause of ODD show that both an authoritarian upbringing and a laissez-faire upbringing, and everything in between that could be inconsistent, can cause ODD. Perhaps it is better to place the cause of an individual’s behavior within the individual himself, then the emphasis of treatment will also lie more with the person himself, who will in any case have to learn to live with his personality.
