Adult physical health outcomes of adolescent girls with conduct disorder, depression, and anxiety

Abstract

Objective: To examine the young adult physical health outcomes of adolescent girls with behavior problems.

Method: Girls with conduct disorder, girls with depression, girls with anxiety, and healthy girls (N = 459) who had been evaluated at age 15 years were followed up at age 21, when general physical health, substance dependence, and reproductive health were assessed.

Results: After control for potentially confounding variables including prior health, adolescent conduct disorder predicted more medical problems, poorer self-reported overall health, lower body mass index, alcohol and/or marijuana dependence, tobacco dependence, daily smoking, more lifetime sexual partners, sexually transmitted disease, and early pregnancy. Adolescent depression predicted only adult tobacco dependence and more medical problems; adolescent anxiety predicted more medical problems.

Conclusions: The robust link between female adolescent conduct disorder and poor physical health in adulthood suggests that intervention with girls who have conduct disorder may be a strategy for preventing subsequent health problems.