Guidance

This guideline covers recognising and managing antisocial behaviour and conduct disorders in children and young people aged under 19. It aims to improve care by identifying children and young people who are at risk and when interventions can prevent conduct disorders from developing. The guideline also makes recommendations on communication, to help professionals build relationships with children and young people and involve them in their own care.

Last reviewed: 21 May 2024

We simplified the guideline by removing recommendations on general principles of care that are covered in other NICE guidelines (for example, the NICE guideline on service user experience in adult mental health). This is a presentational change only, and no changes to practice are intended.

This guideline updates and replaces NICE technology appraisal 102 (July 2006).

Future updates: In April 2018, we checked this guideline and plan to update recommendations on multisystemic therapy as part of multimodal interventions. For more information, see the surveillance decision.

Recommendations

This guideline includes recommendations on:

Who is it for?

  • Health and social care professionals
  • Commissioners and providers
  • Children and young people aged under 19 who have or are at risk of antisocial behaviour or conduct disorders, and their families and carers

Guideline development process

How we develop NICE guidelines

This guidance has been developed jointly by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE).

This guideline was previously called antisocial behaviour and conduct disorders in children and young people: recognition, intervention and management.

Your responsibility

The recommendations in this guideline represent the view of NICE, arrived at after careful consideration of the evidence available. When exercising their judgement, professionals and practitioners are expected to take this guideline fully into account, alongside the individual needs, preferences and values of their patients or the people using their service. It is not mandatory to apply the recommendations, and the guideline does not override the responsibility to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual, in consultation with them and their families and carers or guardian.

All problems (adverse events) related to a medicine or medical device used for treatment or in a procedure should be reported to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency using the Yellow Card Scheme.

Local commissioners and providers of healthcare have a responsibility to enable the guideline to be applied when individual professionals and people using services wish to use it. They should do so in the context of local and national priorities for funding and developing services, and in light of their duties to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, to advance equality of opportunity and to reduce health inequalities. Nothing in this guideline should be interpreted in a way that would be inconsistent with complying with those duties.

Commissioners and providers have a responsibility to promote an environmentally sustainable health and care system and should assess and reduce the environmental impact of implementing NICE recommendations wherever possible.