Comment
Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
“He must be on drugs,” we sometimes hear someone conclude upon witnessing aberrant behavior; often when upon a closer look at the circumstances, mental illness is more likely to blame. Drugs are implicated in a wide variety of adverse actions and behavior, often unspecified except to suggest their negative influence. Sometimes, there is indeed a link. This is especially true when it comes to drugs and violence. Drugs and AggressionSource: Image by Hamed Mehrnik from PixabayMany people equate aggression with the use of stimulant drugs, like cocaine or methamphetamine, and that correlation has been established. Yet research has also documented associations between aggression and other types of drugs, that most people would not ordinarily expect. Berman, M. et al. established a link between morphine and aggression.[i] In their study, 28 male undergraduates were administered either a placebo or 45 mg of immediate-release oral morphine tablets, then given an opportunity to administer electric shocks to an increasingly aggressive (pseudo) opponent within a competitive reaction-time task. They found subjects in the morphine condition more willing to initiate such attacks than subjects who had received a placebo. They also found that subjects in the morphine condition reacted more aggressively at all levels of provocation.Licata, A. et al. made a similar finding studying cocaine,[ii] which may not be as surprising, given the stimulant nature of cocaine (as opposed to morphine). Using 30 male undergraduates, they administered either a placebo, a low dose (1 mg/kg), or a high dose (2 mg/kg) of cocaine, and then gave subjects an opportunity to administer electric shocks to an increasingly aggressive (fictitious) opponent within the course of a competitive reaction-time task, as in the experiment by M. Berman et al. with morphine.Licata et al. defined aggression by the intensity of shock each subject was willing to give his adversary. Their results found that subjects who had received a high dose of cocaine reacted more aggressively than subjects in the placebo condition, regardless of the level of provocation.Regarding drugs with a traditionally depressive effect, Weisman, A.M. et al. studied the effects of three types of benzodiazepines on aggression.[iii] In their research, 44 medically healthy male subjects were administered either a placebo, 10 mg diazepam, 15 mg clorazepate, or 50 mg oxazepam. Using a stimulus similar to the preceding experiments, about 90 min after drug ingestion, participants were afforded the opportunity to administer electric shocks to what was presented as an
Add Comment