Can rage be treated with vitamins?

Can rage be treated with vitamins?

Two case studies of children carried out in Calgary in Canada suggest that vitamin supplementation may be helpful in managing children suffering from behavioural problems, which include ungovernable temper and obsessive symptoms.

A micronutrient supplement containing a broad range of dietary minerals and vitamins is being examined for the treatment of mood lability in both adults and children (Kaplan et al. 2001; Popper 2001). During pilot work, two medication-free boys with mood lability and explosive rage were studied in an open-label treatment followed by reversal and retreatment.

One child was an 8-year-old with atypical obsessive-compulsive disorder, and the other was a 12-year-old with pervasive developmental delay. Both boys were monitored using the mood and temper items from the Conners Parent Rating Scale, as well as the Child Behavior Checklist. In addition, the boy with atypical obsessive-compulsive disorder was monitored with the child version of the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale.

Both boys benefited from the micronutrient supplement when examined in ABAB designs: mood, angry outbursts, and obsessional symptoms improved when initially treated, returned when not taking the supplement, and remitted when the micronutrient supplement was reintroduced. Both boys have been followed and are stable on the nutritional supplement for over two years.

These cases suggest that mood lability and explosive rage can, in some cases, be managed with a mixture of biologically active minerals and vitamins, without using lithium or other traditional
psychopharmacologic agents.

More research on infant and child

First Published May 2007

Top of page