Predictors of Aggressive Behaviours in Drug De-Addiction Centre.

Aim: Associations have been reported between aggression and psychoactive substance use. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and nature of aggressive incidents and to examine the factors associated with aggression in patients in a drug de-addiction unit. Method: Forms of aggression and their severity were assessed based on questions of Overt Aggression Scale (OAS). Data were collected from inpatients about the nature of their aggressive incident during a 12-month period. The characteristics of those patients involved in aggressive incidents were compared with those of others who had not been aggressive. Results: Fifty out of 83 patients admitted during this period were involved in some form of aggressive behaviour. Pattern of aggressive behaviour exhibited by patients were in the form of verbal aggression 60.24% (N=50); Object aggression 28.9% (N=24); Aggression toward other 32.53% (N=27) and Aggression toward self 2.41% (N=2). There were high correlations of one form of aggression in presence of other forms. Most common diagnosis was alcohol dependence. On the whole aggression was found to be higher in the alcohol withdrawal with delirium group. While all other forms of violence showed increase with past histories, statistical significance was there only in aggression towards others (p=0.043). Aggressive behaviours generally reported less in voluntarily admitted patients. Comparison of aggressive behaviour in relation to family type, locality, religion, family history of violence did not yield any significant variation. Conclusion: Like weather forecasting, predictions of future violence will not always be correct. However, in order to prevent aggressive incidents, present study revealed that particular attention and increase support required in patients living in the nuclear family, unwilling for admission, past history of aggressive incidents and diagnoses of alcohol withdrawal. Verbal aggression could be considered as strong predictor for other type of assault.

Surveying the association between computer-video games and aggression in male students of guidance schools in Tehran, 2003

One of the most exciting fields of mankind life in the recent century is computer-video games that have an increasing popularity among children and adolescents. However, it has incited the general anxiety from the probable destructive effects on these age groups. One of the major concerns is the obvious feature of aggressiveness. The present study was designed to survey the association between computer-video games and aggression in male students of guidance schools in Tehran. The study population included 333 male students of guidance school who have been randomly selected. They were requested to fill both the research and aggression questionnaires. Results have revealed a non-significant direct association between aggression and computer-video games. However, there was a significant relationship between the time of proceeding to these games and type of game with the types of aggression in a way that increasing the rate of proceeding to these games and harsh games, the rate of student's aggression was increased. Our results showed that encountering the computer games continually may cause the manners of aggression and decreasing of educational function