Alcohol, Aggression, and Violence: From Public Health to Neuroscience.

Kajol V Sontate,Jaya Kumar,Isa Naina Mohamed,Mohammad Rahim Kamaluddin,Haziq Kamal,Mohd Farooq Shaikh,Rashidi Mohamed Pakri Mohamed

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.699726

Abstract

Alcohol has been associated with violent crimes and domestic violence across many nations. Various etiological factors were linked to chronic alcohol use and violence including psychiatric comorbidities of perpetrators such as personality disorders, mood disorders, and intermittent explosive disorders. Aggression is the precursor of violence and individuals prone to aggressive behaviors are more likely to commit impulsive violent crimes, especially under the influence of alcohol. Findings from brain studies indicate long-term alcohol consumption induced morphological changes in brain regions involved in self-control, decision-making, and emotional processing. In line with this, the inherent dopaminergic and serotonergic anomalies seen in aggressive individuals increase their susceptibility to commit violent crimes when alcohol present in their system. In relation to this, this article intends to investigate the influence of alcohol on aggression with sociopsychological and neuroscientific perspectives by looking into comorbidity of personality or mood disorders, state of the mind during alcohol consumption, types of beverages, environmental trigger, neurochemical changes, and gender differences that influence individual responses to alcohol intake and susceptibility to intoxicated aggression.

Highlights

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is one of the leading causes of the global burden of disease and injury (WHO), despite the continuous discovery of novel pharmacotherapeutic agents (Pakri Mohamed et al, 2018)
255 community-based men Domestic violence was prevalent in urban slums and husbands use of alcohol, early marriage, working status, justified wife beating were the factors significantly associated with domestic violence
The findings indicate that aggressive men are more inclined to automatic emotion regulation in response to provocation compared to aggressive women (Repple et al, 2018)

Summary

Introduction

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is one of the leading causes of the global burden of disease and injury (WHO), despite the continuous discovery of novel pharmacotherapeutic agents (Pakri Mohamed et al, 2018). Various factors such as environmental, social, situational, and cultural context have distinctive consequences toward substance use and its effects on individuals (Latkin et al, 2017). Studies from various countries have reported crimes and domestic violence owing to alcohol (Hagelstam and Häkkänen, 2006; Mayshak et al, 2020), especially during the recent state of global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic (Finlay and Gilmore, 2020)

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