Comorbidity of major depression and conduct disorder.

The association of depression and conduct disorder is common and often perplexing in child psychiatry. Using a systematic retrospective chart review, various symptom, demographic and family history variables were compared between depression with comorbid conduct disorder and depression alone. Variables which differed between groups were entered into a stepwise discriminative function analysis. The four variables which discriminated between groups were anxiety, witness to family violence, illegal behavior, and impulsive behavior. The strongest discriminating variable, anxiety, was associated with depression without comorbid conduct disorder. These results emphasize the heterogeneity of childhood depression and potential importance of anxiety.