Citation

Puhalla AA, Berman ME, Coccaro EF, Fahlgren MK, McCloskey MS. J. Psychiatr. Res. 2020; 125: 38-44.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jpsychires.2020.02.025

PMID

32203738

Abstract

Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED), the only psychiatric diagnosis for which affective aggression is the cardinal symptom, is uniquely associated with both a history of childhood abuse and a diagnosis of an alcohol use disorder (AUD). Moreover, both childhood abuse and AUD are associated with increased general aggression and aggression while intoxicated. Yet, no study to date has examined the relative contributions of childhood abuse and AUD to IED, nor their effects on overall and intoxicated aggression among those with and without IED. The following study aimed to fill these gaps. Participants were 493 individuals (68% female; Age M = 26.65) either with (n = 265) or without (psychiatric control group; n = 228) IED. All participants completed a clinical interview to (a) diagnose AUD, IED, and other comorbid psychiatric disorders; (b) assess childhood abuse history; and (c) determine lifetime frequency of overall and intoxicated aggression.

RESULTS indicated that a history of childhood abuse, but not AUD status, was uniquely predictive of IED status. With regard to aggression frequency, IED, AUD and childhood abuse were all independently associated with overall aggression, although only those with IED showed increased intoxicated aggression as a function of AUD severity. Overall, these results suggest that a history of childhood abuse may increase the chances of engaging in overall aggression and developing IED, which in turn may increase the association between AUD severity and intoxicated aggression.

Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Language: en

Keywords

Aggression; Alcohol use disorder; Childhood abuse; Intermittent explosive disorder; Intoxicated aggression