RAGING TEENAGER89X6NEA73Q6C
I found this very
interesting article on teen-age rage.
I do not take credit for
it in any way, just sharing it because, The Way I C It;
It is important to share information which may help others.
Source
Added by Time Healthland on July 4, 2012.
Saved under Child & Family MH, Featured, Mental Illness, News, Research, Youth MH
With all those raging
hormones, every teenager is bound to “lose it” at one time or another. But a
recent study suggests that adolescents’ attacks of anger may indicate something
more serious than your standard puberty-related mood swings: nearly two-thirds
of youth report having had a bout of uncontrollable anger that involved
threatening violence, destroying property or engaging in violence toward
others, and nearly 8% — or close to 6 million teens — meet the criteria for
intermittent explosive disorder (IED), which is characterized by persistent,
out-of-control anger attacks that can’t be explained by a mental or medical
disorder or substance use.
The findings, by
researchers at Harvard Medical School, came from national surveys of nearly
6,500 American teens, aged 13 to 17, and their parents. The researchers found
that IED was more common than thought, and that it is severe and persistent;
kids usually start showing signs of IED in late childhood and the disorder
persists through adolescence, the authors say. IED in teens is also linked with
later problems, like depression and substance abuse in adulthood.
The study found,
however, that many teens weren’t getting the help they needed. Among the study
participants, 38% of those with IED received treatment for emotional problems
in the year prior to the survey, but only 17% of these teens — or just 6.5% of
all teens who had diagnosable IED — had received treatment specifically for
anger.
If IED could be detected
and treated early, however, clinicians could help prevent a substantial amount
of future violence and related mental harms, said senior author Ronald Kessler,
professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School.
To meet the definition
of IED, according to the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a person must have
three episodes of “impulsive aggressiveness grossly out of proportion to any
precipitating psychosocial stressor,” at any time during their lives. In the
current study, the researchers also used narrower definitions of IED that required
attacks of anger within the previous 12 months and found that many teens met
the standard. (The study excluded teens with other mental or emotional
disorders like bipolar disorder, ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder and
conduct disorder.)
“It’s a problem because
it really gets in the way of your life,” says Kessler. “There are lots of
things people don’t get treatment for because it doesn’t really impact them.
This does. The problem is an awful lot of people have it — more than I thought
— it’s awfully chronic, and it’s impairing.”
The authors find that
IED is not only underdiagnosed, but understudied as well. They write: “The
number of PubMed research reports dealing with panic attacks is roughly 60
times the number dealing with anger attacks even though the lifetime prevalence
of IED is considerably higher than the prevalence of panic disorder.”
Part of the problem may
be that overly angry or aggressive people fail to acknowledge their own
behavior. “I think one reason [IED] is understudied is that people who have
these anger problems very often do not consider it a problem. They don’t go in
for help. They may get arrested, but they don’t seek help on their own,” says
Kessler. “Some things like this and other social disorders can fall through the
cracks, and this is one of them.”
The authors say further
research is needed to understand the risk factors for IED in teens and to
improve diagnosis, screening and treatments.
The findings are published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.
Article source: http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/03/is-this-teen-angst-or-an-uncontrollable-anger-disorder/
