Head injury & impulsive aggression in personality disorder - version 1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The contribution of organic factors to impulsive aggression in patients with personality disorders.
IRAS ID
226996
Contact name
Julianne Kinch
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Teesside University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 30 days
Research summary
A small but growing body of research suggests that individuals receiving treatment for personality disorders (PD) may have an unrecognised history of head injury(HI). These missed head injuries will potentially have important implications for treatment. Clinically, PDs are characterised by patterns of impulsivity, especially impulsive aggression. Similar patterns of impulsive aggression are found in individuals with HI. Very little research has examined the factors that underlie impulsive aggression in these groups. Impulsive aggression in both groups may result from several distinct underlying forms of impulsivity: i) cognitive impulsivity; ii) motor impulsivity; and iii) emotional/affective impulsivity. The present study firstly aims to identify the presence of a history of HI within PD populations, and secondly to compare the number of incidents of expressed impulsive aggression in individuals with a PD and a history of HI compared with those with only a PD. A third aim is to identify which underlying forms of impulsivity are associated with impulsive aggression in both patient groups. The primary hypothesis is that individuals with a PD & a history of HI will demonstrate similar deficits in cognitive and emotional/affective impulsivity as individuals with a PD alone, however, they will perform more poorly on tests of motor impulsivity. Such findings would have substantial implications for current treatments programmes and will allow for recommendations for the future development of treatments.
REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/WM/0336
Date of REC Opinion
2 Oct 2017
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion