Tuesday, June 06, 2006

My diagnosis..."Psycho"

Road rage has just been qualified with a medical diagnosis, "Intermittent explosive disorder."
About 5 percent to 7 percent of the nationally representative sample had had the disorder, which would equal up to 16 million Americans. That is higher than better-known mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, {said Dr. Emil Coccaro, chairman of psychiatry at the University of Chicago’s medical school.}

The average number of lifetime attacks per person was 43, resulting in $1,359 in property damage per person. About 4 percent had suffered recent attacks.

So now uncontrolled behavior is excused as an illness and is compared to well characterized disorders such as schizophrenia. This also makes way for medicinal behavioral modification when people don't control their anger. We've already classified obesity as a medical disorder. What's next...laziness?

2 comments:

kristi noser said...

I thought Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED) was a flatulence problem.

Joey said...

I found this story yesterday and was pretty befuddled by it too. Seems like psychologists have to diagnose everything. Nothing is simply a cause of that human condition called...oh, what is it? Oh yeah...sin!

(Is it any coincidence that the word "psychologist" starts with "psycho"?)