Anger Management -
Treatments Recommended For Road Rage – Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED)
is Identified and is Widespread
June 5th 2006
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Anger Management |
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Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED), a disease characterized by
recurring episodes of anger and potentially violent outbursts, is much
more common than thought. According to the researchers, the disorder
can be diagnosed. If a person has had three major episodes of impulsive
aggressiveness at any time in his life which is significantly more
explosive than what most normal people would have had in the same
situation, they have the disorder.
The outbursts are sudden and can include damage to property or physical
harm. The disorder could affect as many as 7.3 percent of adults. That
works out to 16 million Americans. Harvard professor of health care,
Ronald Kessler, PhD says that each year IED affects nearly 4 percent of
Americans, or 8.6 million adults.
Interestingly, people feel a sense of relief during the uncontrollable
outburst, but then feel remorseful about their actions. There may be
effective treatments for this condition.
According to researchers the treatment could include both “behavioral
and pharmacological interventions.” Selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitors [SSRIs] and mood stabilizers could be prescribed. The
behavioral therapy might involve cognitive restructuring, coping skills
training, and relaxation training—a combination known as CRCST—which has
proven to be effective in treating IED.
Coauthor Emil Coccaro, MD, the Ellen C. Manning professor and chair of
the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Chicago Pritzker
School of Medicine says “Ideally, people should be treated with both
medicine and cognitive-behavioral therapy. Medicines increase the
threshold at which people will explode, and cognitive-behavior therapy
teaches people how to handle feelings of frustration or threat that
often lead to explosive episodes.”
There may be a genetic link to the disease. Coccaro says “In the
general population, aggressiveness or ‘blowing up’ is considered bad
behavior; people think, ‘This person just needs an attitude adjustment.’
But Intermittent Explosive Disorder goes beyond that, having strong
genetic and biomedical underpinnings, If people think these explosive
outbursts are just bad behavior, they are not thinking of this problem
as a serious biomedical problem that can be treated.”
In a story earlier this month on Best Syndication (Pfizer and
GlaxoSmithKline Help Send Kids to Prison), we reported that SSRIs can be
dangerous. After visits to their family doctors, Christopher Pittman
and Zachary Schmidkunz were both sent home with a bag of Zoloft samples
with no warnings about the drug's side effects. They both went on to
commit murder, were sent to prison, and are now waiting for hearings on
their appeals. Zoloft (sertraline hydrochloride) is a Selective
Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) used to treat depression and is not
recommended by Coccaro as a treatment for IED.
The American Psychological Association says that typically people that
are easily angered come from families that are disruptive, chaotic and
not skilled at emotional communications. Experts say that the idea of
“Let it all hang out” is a dangerous myth. “Research has found that
"letting it rip" with anger actually escalates anger and aggression and
does nothing to help you (or the person you're angry with) resolve the
situation. It's best to find out what it is that triggers your anger,
and then to develop strategies to keep those triggers from tipping you
over the edge.”
Dan Wilson
Best Syndication
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