Intermittent Explosive Disorder Less Prevalent in Iraq

Even though Iraqis have been exposed to widespread violence during the last three decades, the prevalence of intermittent explosive disorder in Iraq appears to be lower than in the United States. So reported Ronald Kessler, Ph.D., a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, and Iraqi, European, and American colleagues in the September Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. The lifetime prevalence estimate for intermittent explosive disorder found in Iraq was 2 percent, which compares with the 8 percent recently found by Kessler and other colleagues in a national survey of American adolescents.

Yet "while the prevalence of intermittent explosive disorder is lower in Iraq than in the United States, the disorder [in both countries] has an early age of onset, is highly persistent, and is associated with substantial comorbidity and functional impairment," highlighting the need for violence-prevention programs in both countries, Kessler and his international team stated in their paper. More information about this study can be found in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica.

More information about the American study can be found in Psychiatric News.

(Image: AJP/Shutterstock.com)