The Phenomenology of Outbursts

Narrative Review: Impairing Emotional Outbursts: What They Are and What We Should Do About Them

“…Tearful, sad, and anxious behaviors are also common. 9 These behaviors are quite similar to tantrums in preschool children except that the episodes last longer, and the aggression or property destruction is more severe. 56…”

“…In addition, outbursts may include distress symptoms, not just anger. Rages, affective storms, meltdowns, mood swings, anger attacks, and, more recently, phasic irritability, are other terms that have been used 9 and may or may not be synonymous.…”

“…51 In the National Comorbidity Study, 14% of adolescents (7.8% with IED and 6.2% with IED but with diagnostic exclusions) reported having at least 3 lifetime "anger attacks" characterized by sudden loss of control resulting in threats and property or physical violence. 55 In both outpatient 9 and inpatient 34 clinical samples, behaviors reported most often include swearing and shouting, slamming doors, punching walls and kicking and hitting things, and aggression toward others. Tearful, sad, and anxious behaviors are also common.…”

“…utbursts in children and adolescents are a major public health dilemma and are responsible for a substantial number of referrals to emergency departments, 1,2 inpatient units, [3][4][5] schools, 6 outpatient clinics, [7][8][9] and residential treatment settings. 10 Yet, as outbursts are transdiagnostic and variably defined, they are difficult to track and study across different systems of care.…”

Large-scale functional brain networks of maladaptive childhood aggression identified by connectome-based predictive modeling

“…The term “aggression” refers to a broad category of behaviors that can result in harm to self or others 2 , and in children with psychiatric disorders these behaviors have also been referred to as affective, reactive, or impulsive aggression 3 . Maladaptive aggression can also be viewed as the behavioral component of anger outbursts 4 , which includes developmentally and socially inappropriate verbal behaviors, such as yelling and verbal threats, and physical behaviors, such as pushing, hitting or kicking. Aggressive behavior is most commonly associated with diagnoses of oppositional defiant disorder (as a behavioral manifestation of losing one’s temper) and conduct disorder in which aggression constitutes one of the main categories of symptoms 5 , 6 .…”