Oppositional Defiant Disorder: Psychological Factors

The comorbidity of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) with other disorders, particularly conduct disorder (CD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), has limited the understanding of ODD as an independent condition. Thus, there is a bias in the literature toward the identification of psychological factors that are—or appear to be—common to ODD, CD, and ADHD, without clarity about what might be unique to ODD. Even so, evidence has implicated several psychological factors, including aspects of executive function, cognition, emotion regulation, and temperament. ODD itself has been demonstrated to include distinct symptom dimensions reflecting irritability and defiant behavior, which may be differentially influenced by or associated with other psychological factors.