ADMITTING
ANGER

Topics: Anger; Honesty; Rage; Self-control

References: Matthew 5:21–22; Ephesians 4:26

Many hotheads suffer from Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED). The good news is that there is a drug that can control it.

So says Dr. Emil Coccaro, a researcher and professor of psychiatry at the University of Chicago Hospitals, who has studied anger for several decades and is championing a new drug called Depakote introduced by Abbott Laboratories in 1995.

The problem is that an effort to find volunteers with volatile tempers for the clinical studies has been unproductive. Apparently few people see their anger as a problem.

The doctor cites an example: “The other day I got into a friend’s car and I noticed the visor on the passenger’s side was gone. I asked what happened, and the driver told me, ‘Don’t get me started on that. My wife ripped it off.’ I told him these things are hard to rip off, and he told me, ‘Well, she was really angry.’ ”

—Mike Conklin, Chicago Tribune (July 28, 2000)