that I can't wait to see come up in a court of law: "Don't blame my client -- he has IED. It's not his fault."

Study says millions have 'rage' disorder By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer

To you, that angry, horn-blasting tailgater is suffering from road rage. But doctors have another name for it — intermittent explosive disorder — and a new study suggests it is far more common than they realized, affecting up to 16 million Americans.

"People think it's bad behavior and that you just need an attitude adjustment, but what they don't know ... is that there's a biology and cognitive science to this," said Dr. Emil Coccaro, chairman of psychiatry at the University of Chicago's medical school.

Road rage, temper outbursts that involve throwing or breaking objects and even spousal abuse can sometimes be attributed to the disorder, though not everyone who does those things is afflicted.

By definition, intermittent explosive disorder involves multiple outbursts that are way out of proportion to the situation. These angry outbursts often include threats or aggressive actions and property damage. The disorder typically first appears in adolescence; in the study, the average age of onset was 14.

The study was based on a national face-to-face survey of 9,282 U.S. adults who answered diagnostic questionnaires in 2001-03. It was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.

About 5 percent to 7 percent of the nationally representative sample had had the disorder, which would equal up to 16 million Americans. That is higher than better-known mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Coccaro said.

The average number of lifetime attacks per person was 43, resulting in $1,359 in property damage per person. About 4 percent had suffered recent attacks.

The findings were released Monday in the June issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

The findings show the little-studied disorder is much more common than previously thought, said lead author Ronald Kessler, a health care policy professor at Harvard Medical School.

"It is news to a lot of people even who are specialists in mental health services that such a large proportion of the population has these clinically significant anger attacks," Kessler said.

Four a couple of decades, intermittent explosive disorder, or IED, has been included in the manual psychiatrists use to diagnose mental illness, though with slightly different names and criteria. That has contributed to misunderstanding and underappreciation of the disorder, said Coccaro, a study co-author.

Coccaro said the disorder involves inadequate production or functioning of serotonin, a mood-regulating and behavior-inhibiting brain chemical. Treatment with antidepressants, including those that target serotonin receptors in the brain, is often helpful, along with behavior therapy akin to anger management, Coccaro said.

Most sufferers in the study had other emotional disorders or drug or alcohol problems and had gotten treatment for them, but only 28 percent had ever received treatment for anger.

"This is a well-designed, large-scale, face-to-face study with interesting and useful results," said Dr. David Fassler, a psychiatry professor at the University of Vermont. "The findings also confirm that for most people, the difficulties associated with the disorder begin during childhood or adolescence, and they often have a profound and ongoing impact on the person's life."

Jennifer Hartstein, a psychologist at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, said she had just diagnosed the disorder in a 16-year-old boy.

"In most situations, he is relatively affable, calm and very responsible," she said. But in stressful situations at home, he "explodes and tears apart his room, throws things at other people" to the point that his parents have called the police.

Hartstein said the study is important because many people are not aware of the disorder.

Can I claim IED to the moderators & be forgiven if I were to drop an internet nuke bomb on his little country?

Maybe the solution to Intermittant Explosive Disorder (IED) is a regimen of the therapy known as Get Your S**t Together and Calm The Hell Down. (GYST-CHD)

It seems these so-called disorders and syndromes have been proliferating. I remember when the smart kids who were bored in class with their quotidian schoolwork were simply given harder work to do. Now they're diagnosed with ADD and given Ritalin.

I've even heard of Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) It's diagnosed in those who...wait for it...habitually have restless legs. I'd call it boredom, or maybe too much caffeine. But what do I know.

Most adults can stay calm under most conditions.
Some of us can stay calm under the very severest conditions that exist.
This behavior is learned with age, maturity & training.

It must be said that everyone has a breaking point. Even the best of us can be overwhelmed and show it under certain private or public conditions.

Most of us outgrow our baby life where crying & screaming got us milk, warmth and our diaper changed.

We all know people that whimper, cry or get angry.
This behavior may have been encouraged by families that put up with it and gave in to this emotional blackmail.

The person becomes imprinted by this behaviour and takes it as being normal. He becomes the classic "victim" whereby the outside world upsets him to the point of loss of control.

Most of us are not impressed and we just sit back and watch the boorish hysterics.
Some of us, unfortunately, may be swayed; either by fear, sympathy or expediency thereby reinforcing this miserable person's method of control.

LMAO...no sh*t

Some guy who murders ten people is going to get off or a reduced sentence because of this. Mark my words. His lawyer will talk about how he "suffers" from this "terrible disorder."

For years, we referred to these kinds of people as having a "short fuse." Little did we know that this was not their fault but a psychological malady.

quote:

Originally posted by Coriolanus: "short fuse."

Saying short fuse as in big explosion or rage as in road rage and air rage gives this behavior some type of macho, masculine, take no sht from nobody, tough guy aura.

It should be called for what it is; childish temper tantrums, hysterical frustration and vulgar bullying.

It's called, that person was not spanked as a child syndrome. Sometimes, especially in the teen years, there's no better solution than a good ass kicking.

That would cure most cases of childish tantrums and fits of rage that exist in most adults today.

Nowadays, you touch your kid, you may goto jail.
Time out, gold stars, demerits, we have become a wussified country. (in that respect)

Knew someone with a lithium imbalance once. Similar symptoms.
Used the imbalance excuse when he hit a woman at a university pub.

Didn't wash....thrown out of school.

Wonder if that excuse might work today, in our more tolerant society? Sadly, it might.

They have a name/acronym for everything. I remember when I was in elementary school kids were just stupid. Now, they're challenged and given slack on tests and easier work. Now this!
I can't wait for somebody to claim IED when they go postal while waiting in line at a fast food restaurant.

"Sorry, Officer, my IED flared up. But I'm good now. Do I still need a ticket for forcing that woman and her baby off the road? She did cut me off."

There has been a lot of research to suggest that violent criminals have less mass or less connections in the frontal lobe of the brain.

I have done some research on the insanity plea and although the media does use it alot, its credibility is fading tremendously.

One thing that all medical professors, experts, etc. have is that thier bias is heavily on the medical model. Yes there may be a predisposition for anger, schizophrenia, etc. However, within reason, the individual can make choices that would not help trigger the disposition toward a behavior, lifestyle etc. I tend to be more biased on nurture than nature.

However there are occasions that nature is THE powerful influence.

There danger here that I think all of you have alluded to - That it can and will be used as a crutch or as an excuse to get away with intolerable behavior(s).

As I have mentioned before we live in an age of misinformation. We are given info. but it may have a spin to meet the needs of whoever is delivering the message. Whether it be publishing to meet the push of the univeristy to "Publish or Perish" and/or investments of a drug company to justify the use of a new drug or whatever.

CEC,

There are people out there that have really, really, poor boundaries and throw tantrums because they don't get their way. In a sense I agree that people should know what appropriate limits are "kicking thier ass" - hmm not as much...

There is a difference between a spanking and a punch, etc.

Good example:

A friend of mine went to the store and he was just minding his own business when he noticed a lady would looked "kind of - off" with a child. She yelled at the child and slapped the child across the face. Then a few seconds later she yelled at the child and punched the child in the face and drew blood. Now by (federal and state) law my friend had to report this. So he and a couple in the store reported this to the local police by thier cell. The lady left but they got a license.

So, yeah, there are people who are very much zealots when they report and feel like they need to rescue everybody, however I am one to agree on erring on the side of caution.

quote:

Originally posted by Coriolanus:...The average number of lifetime attacks per person was 43...

What does he mean by that?

Loss of temper once a year or so???

this is ridicoulous. simply unbelievable BS what some can come up with.