According to a Harvard Medical School survey conducted of 10,148 US adolescents ages 13-17 who were interviewed from February
5, 2001, through January 31, 2004, two-thirds of US teens showed a propensity to anger resulting in violence at some point in their
lives.
Senior author Ronald Kessler said the severe attacks of uncontrollable anger among adolescents
are much more common than previously recognized. The researchers used data from National Comorbidity Survey
Replication Adolescent Supplement, a national face-to-face household
survey of The study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, which found
close to 6 million adolescents met criteria for a diagnosis of
Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED), a syndrome characterized by persistent
uncontrollable anger attacks not accounted for by other mental
disorders.
COMMENT: The study also revealed that only 6.5% of adolescents with IED received
professional treatment for their anger attacks. The findings indicated that IED is a severe, chronic, commonly
occurring disorder among adolescents, one that begins early in life.
"If we can detect IED early and intervene with effective treatment
right away, we can prevent a substantial amount of future violence
perpetration and associated psychopathology," Kessler said in a
statement.
Unfortunately, the study did not reveal the root causation for the high incidence toward a propensity for violence nor did it offer any comparative data regarding respondents of similar ages in other countries. Nevertheless, the study's data does suggest an alarming trend toward social conflict.
