Psychopharmacology of Human Aggression: Laboratory and Clinical Studies
Psychopharmacology of Human Aggression: Laboratory and Clinical Studies
This chapter discusses the association between drugs and human aggression, laboratory studies of human aggression, and effects of drugs on human aggression under laboratory conditions. It argues that methodological difficulties often prevent unequivocal interpretations of the outcomes of pharmacological treatments of aggression. Conducting well-designed placebo-controlled studies in an inpatient setting is difficult, as drug-free washout periods may be unsafe for both patients and staff. Thus, it is clinically difficult to assess whether a reduction in aggression is a specific effect of the pharmacological agent or of nonspecific effects of medications such as neuroleptics and benzodiazepines commonly used for the management of specific Axis I and Axis II disorders. Nonpharmacological factors, such as the therapeutic milieu, can affect treatment outcome and should be considered when evaluating the efficacy of a pharmacotherapeutic intervention for aggression.
Keywords: aggressive behavior, drugs, laboratory studies, pharmacological treatments, placebo
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .