Rage Disorder

Just about everyone knows all about IEDs. They are Improvised Explosive Devices. Simple to make and devastating in their impact. Widely used in Afghanistan by the Taliban, who plant them at the side of roads where UN foreign forces have met with their explosive impacts. Resulting in death at worst and amputations at the very least. Of course ordinary Afghan civilians, farmers, children have also had experience with IEDs, but those are the 'unavoidable casualties' of conflict.

Now we learn there's another IED. This one is listed in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the official "bible" of mental dysfunction. In that edition of psychiatry's listing of mental illness, IED is described as "recurrent, problematic, impulsive aggression", noted by its disproportionate reaction to the situations that happen to provoke the reaction.

Those reactions are characterized as explosive expressions of rage, verbal or physical. By people who, confronted with situations which would normally irritate, annoy or confuse people without the disorder, instigate a response so filled with provocation by those with the disorder they entirely lose control of their responses, they break or smash items and fill the air with loud and abusive language.

"These people blow up frequently, and it's getting them  into trouble. Not necessarily with police. It gets them into trouble in their relationships; it gets them into trouble at work.
"Sometimes they can mask it, or keep it under wraps. But after awhile, they can't. It's hard to live with these people."
"If you actually put inflammatory proteins into certain areas of the brain which are relevant for aggression, you can make animals more aggressive."
"What isn't clear is why the field or society is not interested enough in studying and treating these problems, which is just remarkable. The fact is aggressive people are not considered to be very sympathetic, because they're doing things to people.
"But the people we're studying are not psychopaths. They're not doing these things on purpose. There's a biology to this. There are circuitry issues that are out of balance, there is biochemistry that is out of balance. This is a real thing."
Dr. Emil Coccaro, chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neuroscience, University of Chicago

This man, who is an expert in IED, or "intermittent explosive disorder" has just had research findings published. Leading to the suggestion that people suffering from IED may be treatable. And the agent for treatment may be a pharmaceutical we use for a great many other health issues; Aspirin. Among adults, it would appear IED can afflict between three to five percent of the population. It commonly emerges in adolescent; age 13 for boys, 19 for girls.

Males are affected by the disorder more commonly than females, although the gender gap isn't very wide. It appears there's a connection between low levels of brain chemicals; notably serotonin and impulsive aggression. The research, published in JAMA Psychiatry, concludes that people with IED have higher levels than normal of C-reactive protein and interleukin-6 in their bloodstream.

Other studies demonstrate that people suffering from IED harbour a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, chronic pain, arthritis and other inflammatory conditions. A medication for these conditions is not surprisingly acetylsalicylic acid. Dr. Coccaro and his research team are planning to test the anti-inflammatory drug Celebrex, in people with IED.

There's another issue associated with people with IED. People charged with the commission of certain crimes of violence often claim to be suffering from physical or mental problems. Hoping that they will be criminally exonerated from blame for their actions that have been harmful to others. Citing the belief that they suffer from IED effects when faced with a criminal charge, perpetrators of spousal abuse and other violent crimes might hope to avoid jail by claiming "rage disorder".

So now, we have not only crudely made bombs which are capable of wreaking havoc and killing people. We also have people with attitudes and emotions and reactions that are in effect, capable of making them into improved explosive devices, whose effect may produce a scene of mayhem and murder.