Aggressive Behavior Can Cost People Their Jobs

If additional reasons are needed for people to find strategies for controlling their aggressive behavior, they can be found in a new study reported in the January Comprehensive Psychiatry showing how potentially damaging such behavior can be in the workplace. Randy Sansone of Wright State University and colleagues evaluated 325 individuals visiting an outpatient internal medicine clinic on factors related to self-reported aggressive behaviors and employment histories. Their data showed that a higher number of aggressive behaviors correlated with a greater number of different jobs held and a greater number of firings.

One form of aggressive behavior with which psychiatrists are familiar is intermittent explosive disorder. It is characterized by recurrent episodes of aggression involving violence or destruction of property out of proportion to a provocation. Information about intermittent explosive disorder can be found in Psychiatric News.

Other recent research on aggression has found that a small protein called neuropeptide Y, which can be found in the hypothalamus and other brain regions, appears to play a key role in aggressive behavior. An antagonist of neuropeptide Y might be able to temper aggression in some individuals. Read more about this topic in Psychiatric News as well.

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