Intermittent explosive disorder-integrated research diagnostic criteria: convergent and discriminant validity

Research on intermittent explosive disorder (IED) has been hindered by vague and restrictive DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. Integrated research criteria have been developed for IED (IED-IR) that address the DSM-IV criteria's shortcomings. The purpose of this study was to examine the convergent and discriminant validity of the IED-IR criteria set by comparing adults meeting these criteria (n=56) to healthy controls (n=56) and to individuals with an Axis I major mental disorder (n=33) or an Axis II personality disorder (n=22) diagnoses on measures of aggression (self-report and behavioral) and global functioning. IED-IR individuals demonstrated higher levels of aggression compared to the other three groups, and were rated as more impaired than the healthy control and Axis I individuals. Subgroup analyses showed that IED-IR subjects who did not meet DSM IED criteria did not differ from DSM IED subjects on self-report measures of aggressiveness or global functioning. Furthermore, the IED-IR subjects evidenced more behavioral aggression than their DSM-IED counterparts.