How pills might curb angry mates

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How therapy changes the brain
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Anger, though generally not included in the list of garden-variety emotional problems, is a common torment.

New research is finding ways to ease two types of anger: the outbursts of an abusive male and the irritability of a woman with premenstrual syndrome, or PMS.

• Abusive anger. The anti-aggressive effect of Prozac is independent of its effect on anxiety and depression, says Emil Coccaro, M.D., a professor of psychiatry at Allegheny University of the Health Sciences in Philadelphia. In ongoing research, Coccaro is now evaluating medical treatment options for men who abuse their partners.

  "We would expect anti-aggressive agents like Prozac might work in men prone to impulsive outbursts, whose tempers just explode at a low level of provocation," he says. "They are less likely to benefit those who use violence as a premeditated strategy to control their partners."

• PMS anger. Premenstrual syndrome, or PMS, afflicts up to 40 percent of women with mild to severe mood swings and physical symptoms. A new study by Susan Thys-Jacobs, M.D., an endocrinologist at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York, suggests a simple remedy: calcium. She showed that a daily ingestion of 1,200 milligrams of calcium taken for three months slashes PMS symptoms by an average 50 percent. Nearly a third of the women on the calcium supplements achieved a dramatic 75 percent lessening of symptoms. That much calcium is in four glasses of milk, three cups of yogurt or four chewable calcium tablets.

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  TREATMENT
  Therapy changes the brain

  If you are wary of medications, cognitive-behavioral therapy often can lead to beneficial changes in brain physiology. Case in point: a recent study of OCD patients that randomly assigned people to drug treatment or cognitive-behavioral therapy. Before treatment, brain scans showed hyperactivity in two distinct areas of the brain.

  After treatment, many patients in both groups had fewer symptoms. Moreover, follow-up PET scans showed a normalization of their brain activity that was identical despite different therapies. Researchers think combining medication and therapy probably works even better.

  By Jim Thornton
  Thornton received a 1998 National Magazine Award for health reporting.