Road Rage A Mental Disorder?

[Old Corps Gunny]

I saw on CNN yesterday morning a report put out by a Chicago study group that "road rage" might actually be linked to a mental disorder called Intermittent Explosive Disorder, or IED for short. This is nothing new; studies have been going on since 1995 trying to link what is basically rude, adolescent behavior to a mental disorder with no significant results to prove that such a link exists. I can't help but wonder if some shyster is going to try to use this study as a defense the next time some jerk flies off the handle on the streets or highways. Anything to avoid responsibility.

[PittsburghAfterDark]

They're only like that because they play Grand Theft Auto.

Jack Thompson told me so.

[AlonzoMourning23]

Intermittent explosive disorder is an impulse control disorder. It results in anger that is grossly disproportionate to what caused it. There is no heightened level of aggression seen in the person outside of the explosive periods, and therefore it cannot just be attributed to a generally aggressive person.

There's no doubt that people with this disorder are more likely to exhibit road rage, the difficulty is linking such a large amount of road rage cases to this disorder. I'm skeptical that this is as common as this new study suggests though. But it hasn't exactly been studied much before, so anything is possible.

[F34R]

In that case, surely road rage can be associated with IED, but is IED the cause for all cases of road rage ? I doubt it. Some people that exhibit "road rage" may also be suffering (pfft) from IED, but I'm willing to be that most of those people who can't control themselves while driving are just assholes anyway. Sometimes it might be a case of that person having a really bad day, and just wanted to get home to relax. Then someone cuts in front of them all the highway.