Vol. 2, No. 2 , 1996, Page 6 
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Vol. 2, No. 2 , 1996, Page 6 |
"Aggressive and antisocial behavior in the broad sense is a huge problem, and we don't
know how to talk about it," a specialist in pediatric psychopharmacology told a recent
conference of the New York Academy of Sciences.
In a speech cited in the Journal of the American Medical Association, physician Daniel Connor told his audience that aggressive and antisocial behavior is seen in one third to one half of all cases referred to child and adolescent psychiatric clinics, and said, "What's more, we're not doing very well with it. We are giving these kids vast numbers of drugs, and yet there are very few controlled studies that indicate efficacy."
Connor, the director of pediatric psychopharmacology at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester, charged that too often doctors are "just spraying medicines at these kids and hoping that something helps," rather than attempting to diagnose underlying or co-occurring medical conditions that cause or exacerbate the children's aggression. But in addition to better diagnostic efforts, he says, extensive research on the roots of aggression is needed.
"We need to collaborate with the basic scientists who are studying animal models of aggression," he said, "to look at the neurobiology of irritability, of impulse discontrol, of fear, and of hostility.
"We must see if we can get basic neurobiologists and clinical child psychopharmacologists working together to try to develop biologic markers of aggression in children," Connor concluded. "If we're going to make any headway, it is going to require interdisciplinary collaboration."
"Childhood aggression needs definition, therapy," Charles Marwick, Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 275, No. 2, January 10, 1996.
"Aggressive and antisocial behavior in the broad sense
is a huge problem, and we don't know how to talk about it."
Daniel Connor, M.D.