Impulsive Aggression Research Articles

Gut microbiome in impulsively violent female convicts.

Introduction Impulsivity and aggression are often interlinked behavioral traits that have major implications for our society. Therefore, the study of this phenomenon and derivative interventions that could lead to better control of impulsive aggression are of interest. Methods We analyzed the composition and diversity of the gut bacterial microbiome of 33 impulsively violent female convicts with dissocial personality disorder and 20 non-impulsive age-matched women. Further, levels of assorted neurotransmitters and short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) were analyzed in serum and stool samples. We also assessed all participants using a battery of psychological questionnaires and tested possible correlations between the collected clinical data and the composition and diversity of their microbiomes and metabolites. Results We identified four bacterial amplicon sequencing variants that were differentially abundant in non-impulsive vs. impulsive women - the genera Bacteroides, Barnesiella, and the order Rhodospirillales were more abundant in impulsive women. In contrast, the genus Catenisphaera was more abundant in non-impulsive women. Fecal tryptophan levels were significantly higher in impulsive women. Association analysis revealed a strong positive intercorrelation between most fecal short-chain fatty acids in the entire dataset. Conclusions Our study demonstrated possible associations between gut microbiomes and their metabolites and impulsive behavior in a unique cohort of prisoners convicted of violent assaults and a matched group of non-impulsive women from the same prison. Genus Bacteroides, which was differentially abundant in the two groups, encoded enzymes that affect serotonin pathways and could contribute to this maladaptive behavior. Similarly, increased fecal tryptophan levels in impulsive individuals could affect neuronal circuits in the brain.

Intermittent Explosive Disorder

Intermittent explosive disorder is characterized by recurrent episodes of inability to resist aggressive impulses, resulting in damage to other people or other people's property. In the history of DSM, it first appeared as 'isolated explosive disorder' in DSM-III. However, with some changes in the diagnostic criteria, it is included under the title of 'destructive, impulse control and conduct disorders' in DSM-5. Although previous studies have shown it is a rare disorder, recent epidemiological studies suggest it may be more common than thought. For this reason, it is essential to master the clinical features and learn the treatment methods in order to recognize people with this disorder and apply the appropriate treatment.

Psychiatric, Neurological, and Somatic Comorbidities in Intermittent Explosive Disorder: a retrospective cohort study of electronic health records.

Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED) is an understudied psychiatric condition that presents with repeated episodes of impulsive aggression and poorly regulated emotional control, often resulting in interpersonal and societal consequences. Better understanding of comorbidities will allow for enhanced screening, diagnosis, and treatment of patients. To investigate prevalence and associations of IED with psychiatric, neurological, and somatic disorders using real-world data. Matched cohorts of patients with or without IED diagnosis were identified using data from the TriNetX Research Network (until January 31, 2024). Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate and compare the probabilities of acquiring other diagnoses using patients' available medical records. Analysis of electronic medical records from two patient populations. 30,357 individuals with IED and equal number of demographically matched individuals without IED from the TriNetX Research. IED diagnosis identified through the associated ICD codes. The main outcomes were ICD-10-CM diagnostic categories and root codes for disorders and health conditions in both cohorts. Main measures are total numbers and proportions of patients who had the diagnostic codes, as well as adjusted hazard ratios for IED diagnosis. Although only 0.03% of the total patient population had an IED diagnosis, we found extensive and widespread comorbidities with psychiatric, neurological and somatic conditions. A significant 95.7% of the individuals with IED had another psychiatric diagnosis. All psychiatric sub-categories and 95% of the psychiatric diagnoses were significantly associated with IED, with HRs ranging from 2 to 77. Among neurological conditions, neurodegenerative diseases and epilepsy had the highest HRs, followed by extrapyramidal and movement disorders, cerebral palsy and other paralytic syndromes, and sleep disorders. Notable associations with IED also includes conditions such as obesity, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and GERD. Our findings illuminate the extensive comorbid relationships between IED and psychiatric, neurological, and somatic disorders. This underscores the necessity for an integrated diagnostic and treatment approach that addresses both the psychological and physical health aspects of IED. Additionally, our work highlights the need for more accurate and inclusive diagnosis of IED in patients with mental disorders.

Psychological and pharmacological treatments of intermittent explosive disorder: a meta-analysis protocol

IntroductionIntermittent explosive disorder (IED) is characterised by recurrent, sudden episodes of impulsive aggression that are disproportionate to the provocation. The condition’s management remains challenging due to the variability in treatment...

Statistical and fuzzy signature-based analysis of the aggressive attitudes of a forensic population

Clustering technics, like k-means and its extended version, fuzzy c-means clustering (FCM) are useful tools for identifying typical behaviours based on various attitudes and responses to well-formulated questionnaires, such as among forensic populations. As more or less standard questionnaires for analyzing aggressive attitudes do exist in the literature, the application of these clustering methods seems to be rather straightforward. Especially, fuzzy clustering may lead to new recognitions, as human behaviour and communication are full of uncertainties, which often do not have a probabilistic nature. In this paper, the cluster analysis of a closed forensic (inmate) population will be presented. The goal of this study was by applying fuzzy c-means clustering to facilitate the wider possibilities of analysis of aggressive behaviour which is treated as a heterogeneous construct resulting in two main phenotypes, premeditated and impulsive aggression. Understanding motives of aggression helps reconstruct possible events, sequences of events and scenarios related to a certain crime, and ultimately, to prevent further crimes from happening.

Commentary: Who gets the credit for "discovering" ADHD and what is the question, really?

Recognition of hyperactivity, impulsivity, distractibility, and emotional lability as a clinical syndrome is at the heart of identifying whether there is a discoverer of the condition of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Just as clinics of children diagnosed with ADHD do not capture a homogeneous group of boys and girls, however, history does not either. What different observers/clinicians have chosen to highlight reflects what is important to them and to the times in which they lived. The child/children described by Heinrich Hoffman (of Fidgety Phil fame) and George Still (who highlighted impulsive aggression as a moral defect), for instance, did not come with a list of criteria (with which even now we cannot always agree) to prove unequivocally that they had ADHD. Who cares! It is sufficient that they recognized the importance of certain co-occurring behaviors and shared their observations with us such that we can conclude our clinic's children were recognized by good past observers. ADHD-like children, like the poor, have probably always been with us.

Differentiating crossover youth: Examining psychological characteristics in a multicultural Australian youth justice cohort

The association between childhood maltreatment and juvenile offending has been well-established, with a significant proportion of justice-involved young people being found to have child protection service histories. However, it is unclear what psychological factors contribute to this complex relationship. This study aimed to compare levels of impulsivity, impulsive aggression, psychopathology, and a sensitivity to anger, as well as gender and ethnocultural background, across justice-involved youth with and without a child protection history. The study sample comprised 215 young people detained in juvenile detention centers across two sites in Victoria, Australia between July 2011 and June 2012. Measures of impulsivity, impulsive aggression, internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and sensitivity to anger were administered and compared amongst those who had previously been the subject of a child protection order and those without such histories. Results of logistic regression analyses indicated that impulsivity and impulsive aggression were independently associated with having a child protection history in justice-involved youth. Ethnocultural background was also significantly associated with having a child protection history. Implications for clinical practice and future research are discussed.

Two “faces” of repressed aggressive impulse and feelings. Atopic dermatitis and hypertension’s conflict dynamic through the prism of Positive psychosomatic psychotherapy.

Two “faces” of repressed aggressive impulse and feelings. Atopic dermatitis and hypertension’s conflict dynamic through the prism of Positive psychosomatic psychotherapy.

Is the fact of having been victims of childhood emotional abuse and/or neglect found in the aggressors’ history?

Background: Early exposure to trauma and stressors can hinder development and accumulate stress over one's lifetime, leading to adverse long-term outcomes. Objective: This study aims to investigate whether individuals exhibiting aggressive behavior may have been victims of emotional abuse and/or neglect during childhood. These experiences profoundly impact development, persisting into adulthood. Four hypotheses were formulated to guide the investigation. Methods: The sample comprised 615 Portuguese adults aged 18 and above. Data collection utilized various instruments including a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Impulsive and Premeditated Aggression Scale, the Life History of Aggression Scale, the Childhood Adversity History Questionnaire, the Difficulties in Emotional Regulation Scale, the Personality Inventory, and the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure. Results and Conclusions: The hypotheses were confirmed, indicating a positive correlation between childhood emotional abuse/neglect and adult aggressive behavior, emotional regulation challenges, elevated neuroticism, openness to experience, boldness, disinhibition, and meanness. Also, emotional regulation difficulties, personality traits, and psychopathy fully mediate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and impulsive/ premeditated aggression, as well as between a history of aggression and impulsive/ premeditated aggression.

Episodic Bout of Shouting: A Rare Variant of Childhood Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Childhood obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by recurrent intrusive thoughts associated with anxiety or fear and/or repetitive purposeful mental or behavioral actions aimed at reducing fears and tensions caused by obsessions. Among the commonly reported obsessions in children are fears of contamination, exposure to germs or disease followed by worries related to harm befalling on them, their family members or fear of harming others due to losing control over aggressive impulses. We are reporting a rare presentation of childhood OCD in which the child has repetitive intrusive urge to shout, producing lot of anxiety when being suppressed, followed by compulsive shouting to relieve the anxiety. Keywords: obsessive-compulsive disorder, shouting, anxiety, sense of relief

Self-control problems in Intermittent Explosive Disorder: Presentation of an explanatory approach

Background and objectivesIntermittent Explosive Disorder (IED) is an impulsive aggression disorder with self-control problems. However, the mechanisms underpinning the self-control problems in IED have not been clearly investigated. Therefore, this study examined the nature of self-control problems and their types, including cognitive inhibition, behavioral inhibition, and emotional interference in IED. MethodsParticipants included three groups: IED (n = 54), psychiatric control (n = 59), and healthy control (n = 62). They were first screened with SCL-90-R, and then they were clinically interviewed. They all did computerized neurocognitive tasks, including Color-Word Stroop Task, Emotional Stroop Task, Go-NoGo Task, and Stop-Signal Task. ResultsMANOVA analyses showed that the IED group had poorer performance in cognitive inhibition, response inhibition, and increased emotional interference than the two psychiatric and healthy control groups. They performed much worse than the other two groups, particularly in action cancellation (Stop-Signal Task), and showed increasingly emotional interference. LimitationsThe brain reaction of individuals while doing the tasks was not examined, and some variables were not measured. Also, it is unclear how the emotional eruption interferes with cognitive content and behavioral inhibition. ConclusionsThese findings indicate that self-control problems in IED can be due to deficient cognitive, emotional, and behavioral inhibitions, each appearing sequentially during a step-by-step process and facilitating the onset of IED signs and symptoms. Such a distinguished understanding of the role of neurocognitive mechanisms can lead to the development of accurate explanatory approaches and increase the effectiveness of treatment.

Effects of cognitive training and behavior modification on aggressive behavior and sleep quality in schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is linked to a heightened risk of impulsive aggression and disturbances in sleep patterns. Cognitive and social cognitive impairments have been connected to aggression, with social cognitive deficits appearing to play a more immediate role. In this investigation, we conducted a retrospective analysis of the impact of cognitive training and sleep interventions on aggressive behavior and the quality of sleep among individuals with SCZ who were hospitalized. This study divided 80 hospitalized patients into two groups according to medical advice, namely the normal group and the study group. The control group received routine drug treatment and education; The research group implemented cognitive training and sleep intervention based on the normal group. Collect basic clinical data, aggressive behavior indicators, and sleep quality indicators. There is no difference in the basic information statistics between the two groups. Both groups can reduce aggressive behavior and improve sleep quality. In the study group, there was a notable decrease in aggressive behavior compared to the control group. Furthermore, the sleep quality in the study group exhibited significant improvement when compared to the control group. Cognitive training and sleep intervention have been proven to be effective nonpharmacological treatments, effectively reducing aggressive behavior and improving sleep quality.

Emotion differentiation and intimate partner violence: Effects of provocation and alcohol intoxication.

This study investigated the impact of relational provocation on intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration as a function of alcohol intoxication and individuals' emotion differentiation (ED; i.e., the ability to differentiate between positive and negative emotions). We hypothesized that provocation and acute intoxication would be associated with lower ED, such that individuals would demonstrate lower ED following provocation and while intoxicated. We also hypothesized an intoxication-by-ED interaction, such that only individuals who were intoxicated and undifferentiated would perpetrate IPV. Two hundred fifty community-based adults completed an aggression paradigm ostensibly with their romantic partners where they were randomly assigned to an alcohol or no-alcohol condition. Participants' ED across positive and negative subscales was calculated at baseline (Time 1), postprovocation and intoxication (Time 2), and postbehavioral aggression (Time 3). IPV was operationalized as the strength and duration of shocks issued to their partner during the aggression paradigm. Both sober and intoxicated participants experienced lower ED following provocation, suggesting a main effect of provocation but no main effect of intoxication. There was a significant alcohol-by-ED interaction in the predicted direction. For intoxicated participants, low ED was associated with greater IPV perpetration. For sober participants, low ED was associated with less IPV perpetration. Consistent with hypotheses, low ED is associated with greater IPV perpetration among intoxicated individuals. In contrast to prior research, low ED was associated with less IPV perpetration among sober individuals. Alcohol-related cognitive impairments may increase the likelihood of IPV perpetration by disrupting the ED process that may otherwise inhibit impulsive aggression. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Inner Peace: Evaluating a Complementary Program Promoting Intra-Personal Peace at Adelaide Women's Prison, Australia.

The Peace Education Program, created in 2012, is a complementary program with potential to supplement official rehabilitation interventions offered in correctional centers. The program promotes "inner peace" as an innate and universal human resource, but whilst inner peace is a key concept in positive psychology and the Good Lives Model, there is a paucity of research regarding how to operationalize and evaluate this concept. The program had not previously been the subject of independent theoretically-informed research. Drawing on a mixed methods study conducted in Adelaide Women's Prison, this article explores the impact of the program on participants' learning regarding inner peace. Participants reported a greater understanding about inner peace, which they described as contributing to a stronger sense of their identity, enhanced self-esteem and increased self-regulation skills, resulting in reductions in impulsivity and reactive aggression. The quantitative data indicated there was a significant increase in participants' subjective ratings of inner peace before the program (M = 12.08) and post-program completion (M = 14.00) (p < .001). Growth in affect-regulation and anger-management skills may contribute to reductions in offending.

Criminal Profiling as a Method of Detecting Lies in Nonverbal Communication

The exponential growth of crime, violence, and wrongdoing is linked to dysfunction in restraining aggressive impulses, leading to neglect and disrespect of others’ feelings, rights, and needs. Two basic forms of communication, verbal and nonverbal, serve individuals to interact and exchange ideas and attitudes with other people in everyday life situations, including within the framework of criminal investigations and criminal justice. The purpose of this study was to draw an analogy between verbal communication (oral speech, written speech) and nonverbal communication (body language, gestures, and silence), with the tendency to explore different components of nonverbal communication and place them in the context of criminal profiling as a method for detecting lies in nonverbal communication. The aim of this study was to emphasize the importance of nonverbal communication as an equal part of the communication process, and often a predominant one in this domain, which helps us demystify suspects, perpetrators, and criminal acts.

Chemical cousins with contrasting behavioural profiles: MDMA users and methamphetamine users differ in social-cognitive functions and aggression

Methamphetamine (METH, “Crystal Meth”) and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, “Ecstasy”) share structural-chemical similarities but have distinct psychotropic profiles due to specific neurochemical actions. Previous research has suggested that their impact on social cognitive functions and social behaviour may differ significantly, however, direct comparisons of METH and MDMA users regarding social cognition and interaction are lacking. Performances in cognitive and emotional empathy (Multifaceted Empathy Test) and emotion sensitivity (Face Morphing Task), as well as aggressive social behaviour (Competitive Reaction Time Task) were assessed in samples of n = 40 chronic METH users, n = 39 chronic MDMA users and n = 86 stimulant-naïve controls (total N = 165). Self-reports and hair samples were used to obtain subjective and objective estimates of substance use patterns. METH users displayed diminished cognitive and emotional empathy towards positive stimuli, elevated punitive social behaviour regardless of provocation, and self-reported heightened trait anger relative to controls. MDMA users diverged from the control group only by exhibiting a distinct rise in punitive behaviour when faced with provocation. Correlation analyses indicated that both higher hair concentrations of MDMA and METH may be associated with reduced cognitive empathy. Moreover, greater lifetime MDMA use correlated with increased punitive behaviour among MDMA users. Our findings confirm elevated aggression and empathy deficits in chronic METH users, while chronic MDMA users only displayed more impulsive aggression. Dose-response correlations indicate that some of these deficits might be a consequence of use. Specifically, the dopaminergic mechanism of METH might be responsible for social-cognitive deficits.

Emotion dysregulation and depressive symptoms mediate the association between inhibitory control difficulties and aggressive behaviour in children with ADHD.

Impulsive aggressive behaviour, although not a core symptom, is often part of the clinical presentation of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Recently, impulsive aggression has been attributed to emotion dysregulation, which is currently conceptualised as a transdiagnostic factor and seems to contribute to the co-occurrence of other problems in ADHD. Thus, this study investigated the presence of impulsive aggressive behaviour and explored whether emotion dysregulation mediates the relationship between inhibitory control difficulties and aggressive behaviour in children with ADHD. Because ADHD may act as a risk factor for the development of other conditions, such as internalising problems, we aimed to understand whether depressive symptoms contribute to this relationship. Seventy-two children were recruited from a hospital and the community, 38 of whom had ADHD and 34 were typically developing (TD). Parents completed the Child Behaviour Checklist, the Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Function, and the Emotion Regulation Checklist. Simple mediation and serial mediation models were performed to test our hypotheses. Aggressive behaviour was significantly higher in ADHD children compared to TD children. Emotion dysregulation fully mediated the relationship between inhibitory control difficulties and aggressive behaviour in ADHD children. Adding depressive symptoms to the model increased the explained variance in aggressive behaviour. The main result of our study supports the role of emotion dysregulation and depressive symptoms in mediating the relationship between inhibitory control difficulties and impulsive aggressive behaviour in children with ADHD. This highlights that aggressive behaviour is, in part, a result of the inability of the child to appropriately regulate their emotions. Future interventions may be tailored to improve emotion regulation skills to address aggressive behaviour.

Developmental structure of digital maturity

The last decades have seen growing attention for the positive and negative effects of digital technology on adolescent's wellbeing. Large individual variability in these effects is likely caused by individual differences in the way people interact with digital devices. Digital maturity aims to capture the extent to which young individuals use digital technology in a healthy and adaptive way. The recently developed Digital Maturity Inventory (DIMI) uses self-report to measure ten domains, from digital literacy to emotion regulation, that constitute digital maturity of adolescents. To better understand the relative contribution and interplay of the different domains in the development of digital maturity, we employed a moderated psychometric network model. We measured digital maturity scores of 378 participants, aged 9–43 years. The results revealed that support-seeking and the regulation of aggressive impulses are central domains within the network, indicating important starting points for intervention studies. Although age did not moderate the connections within the network, we did find that older participants were more digitally literate and asked less often for support regarding digital issues. These results suggest that digital maturity is a relatively robust concept across adolescence and into adulthood and provide important footholds for interventions.

Why a lot of grandiose narcissism can be a good thing for leadership effectiveness: Political skill as game changer

We tested the productively tempering role of political skill, which is a developed level of social skill and an acquired interpersonal competence, on the relation between leader grandiose narcissism and leadership effectiveness. In a sample of 640 supervisors and 1259 employees, we found that at high levels of leader political skill, both low and high leader grandiose narcissism have beneficial consequences for leadership effectiveness, yielding a U-shaped relation between grandiose narcissism and leadership effectiveness. Individuals high on political skill and grandiose narcissism have the self-control capacity to temper aggressive impulses and simultaneously productively package and present their desire for admiration and adulation in a manner that allows them to gain subordinates' acceptance. Individuals low on grandiose narcissism display high honesty-humility. Supervisors high in political skill and low in grandiose narcissism effectively direct their motive to get along (honesty-humility) to be well-received by subordinates. If leader political skill is low, we found the inverse U-shaped relation between grandiose narcissism and leadership effectiveness previously established in meta-analytic research. Our findings show that higher levels of political skill are helpful for leaders both high and low on grandiose narcissism.

Impulsivity and aggression in alcohol withdrawal syndrome is modulated by the interaction of ZNF804A and mTOR polymorphism

Alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) is a poorly studied phenotype of alcohol use disorder. Understanding the relationship between allelic interactions and AWS-related impulsivity and aggression could have significant implications. This study aimed to investigate the main and interacting effects of ZNF804A and mTOR on impulsivity and aggression during alcohol withdrawal. 446 Chinese Han adult males with alcohol dependence were included in the study. Impulsivity and aggression were assessed, and genomic DNA was genotyped. Single gene analysis showed that ZNF804A rs1344706 (A allele/CC homozygote) and mTOR rs1057079 (C allele/TT homozygote) were strongly associated with AWS-related impulsivity and aggression. In the allelic group, MANOVA revealed a significant gene x gene interaction, suggesting that risk varied systematically depending on both ZNF804A and mTOR alleles. Additionally, a significant interactive effect of ZNF804A rs1344706 and mTOR rs7525957 was found on motor impulsivity and physical aggression, and the ZNF804A rs1344706 gene variant had significant effects on motor impulsivity and physical aggression only in mTOR rs7525957 TT homozygous carriers. The study showed that specific allelic combinations of ZNF804A and mTOR may have protective or risk-enhancing effects on AWS-related impulsivity and aggression.