Social cognition in Intermittent Explosive Disorder and aggression

Abstract

Social-emotional information processing (SEIP) was assessed in individuals with current DSM-5 Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED: n = 100) and in healthy (n = 100) and psychiatric (n = 100) controls using a recently developed and validated self-rated questionnaire. SEIP vignettes depicted both direct aggressive and relationally aggressive scenarios of a socially ambiguous nature and were followed by questions assessing subjects' reactions and judgments about the vignettes. IED subjects differed from both healthy and psychiatric controls in all SEIP components. While hostile attribution was highly related to history of aggression, it was also directly correlated with negative emotional response. Further analysis revealed that this component, as well as response valuation and response efficiency, rather than hostile attribution, best explained history of aggressive behavior. A reformulated SEIP model, including self-reported history of childhood trauma, found that negative emotional response and response efficiency were the critical correlates for history of aggressive behavior. Psychosocial interventions of aggressive behavior in IED subjects may do well to include elements that work to reduce the emotional response to social threat and that work to restructure social cognition so that the tendency towards overt, or relationally, aggressive responding is reduced.

Narcissistic and Borderline Personality Disorders: Relationship With Oxidative Stress

“…Two instruments were selected that assess social behavior by eliciting the direct response of the subject to social cues. The Social Information Processing Questionnaire (SIP-Q; Coccaro, Noblett, & McCloskey, 2009; see also Coccaro, Fanning, Keedy, & Lee, 2016) is a self-report questionnaire that assesses attributional style, emotional response, and response selection in response to a series of eight vignettes depicting interpersonal conflict in which the intent of the antagonist is ambiguous. The first four vignettes depict acts of relational aggression such as social exclusion, while the second four vignettes depict physical aggression.…”

Genome-Wide DNA Methylation Changes Associated with Intermittent Explosive Disorder: A Gene-Based Functional Enrichment Analysis

“…Intermittent explosive disorder (IED), as defined by DSM-5 ( American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ), is characterized by recurrent, problematic, and impulsive aggression. It occurs in 3% to 4% of individuals in the United States ( Coccaro et al, 2017 ) and has been shown to have numerous neurobiological features, including anomalies of neuroanatomy ( Coccaro et al, 2015c , 2016c ); corticolimbic response to social threat ( Coccaro et al, 2007 ; Cremers et al, 2015 ; McCloskey et al, 2016 ); neurotransmitter function ( Coccaro et al, 2015a ), including peripheral ( Coccaro et al, 2014b , 2016d ) and central ( Coccaro et al, 2014a , 2015b ) inflammatory mediators; and social cognition ( Coccaro et al, 2009 , 2016a , 2016b ). Not surprisingly, numerous studies indicate that both genetic and environmental factors contribute to the development of aggression ( Coccaro et al, 1997a ; Miles et al, 1997 ; Yeh et al, 2010 ).…”

5‐HT2c agonist, lorcaserin, reduces aggressive responding in intermittent explosive disorder: A pilot study

“…Psychiatric diagnoses were made according to DSM‐5 criteria using information from (a) the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM diagnoses (First, Williams, & Gibbon, ) for syndromal (formally Axis I) disorders and the Structured Interview for the Diagnosis of Personality Disorder (Pfohl, Blum, & Zimmerman, ) for personality (formally Axis II) disorders, (b) clinical interview by a research psychiatrist, and (c) review of all other available clinical data. Final diagnoses were assigned by team best‐estimate consensus procedures involving research psychiatrists and clinical psychologists (Coccaro, Fanning, Keedy, & Lee, ). Study participants with a current history of a substance use disorder or a life history of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia (or other psychotic disorder), or intellectual disability were excluded from study.…”

“…Psychiatric diagnoses were made according to DSM-5 criteria using information from (a) the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM diagnoses (First, Williams, & Gibbon, 2014) (Coccaro, Fanning, Keedy, & Lee, 2016). Study participants with a current history of a substance use disorder or a life history of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia (or other psychotic disorder), or intellectual disability were excluded from study.…”