Where’s the line between normal teen angst and being so angry it counts as a mental disorder?
According to a recent study, 1 in 12 teens cross that line.
Researchers from Harvard Medical School found that almost 8% of adolescents experienced bursts of anger extreme enough to warrant a diagnosis of “intermittent explosive disorder,” an adolescent mental illness.
Researchers say the results warn of a “highly prevalent and seriously impairing disorder,” according to the study, published Monday in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
“To our surprise, it turns out to be one of the most common mental health disorders in adolescents,” study author Ronald Kessler told Boston.com.
The disorder is defined as recurring episodes of impulsive aggression – or in simpler terms, regularly throwing temper tantrums.
It’s at least twice as common in boys as girls, the study found.
Nearly two-thirds of adolescents said that at some point in their life they had gotten so angry they destroyed things, threatened violence or became violent.
Some mental-health experts question if anger should be classified as a mental illness at all, and are fighting to keep it out of the latest edition of the DSM, due out next year, Boston.com reported.
But researchers say the disorder is understudied and undertreated and that more research is needed to detect risk factors and identify treatments.
The study surveyed a large national sample of more than 10,000 teens ages 13 to 17 from 2001 to 2004. The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.
“We know not that much about the course of the disorder,” study author Katie McLaughlin told CNN. “Which kids grow out of it and which kids don’t?”
