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The relationship between impulsive verbal aggression and intermittent explosive disorder
Author(s) -
McCloskey Michael S.,
Lee Royce,
Berman Mitchell E.,
Noblett Kurtis L.,
Coccaro Emil F.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
aggressive behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.223
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1098-2337
pISSN - 0096-140X
DOI - 10.1002/ab.20216
Subject(s) - aggression , psychology , anger , psychosocial , clinical psychology , personality disorders , poison control , personality , borderline personality disorder , injury prevention , psychiatry , medicine , medical emergency , social psychology
Intermittent explosive disorder (IED) is the sole psychiatric diagnostic category for which aggression is a cardinal symptom. IED focuses on physical aggression, but researchers have argued for the inclusion of verbal aggression (VA) (e.g., arguing, threatening) as a part of the IED criteria set. The utility of VA in identifying clinically relevant aggression, however, is unknown. IED participants were compared to individuals without a marked history of physical aggression, but who report frequent (two or more times a week) VA, and non‐aggressive personality‐disorder individuals on behavioral and self‐report measures of aggression, self‐report measures of related constructs (e.g., anger, affective lability), and a clinician assessment of psychosocial impairment. Both the IED and VA groups were more aggressive, angry, and clinically impaired than personality‐disorder individuals, while the IED and VA groups did not differ from each other on these measures. These results support the clinical importance of frequent VA for future iterations of the IED criteria set. Aggr. Behav. 34:51–60, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.