ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Anticonvulsants are used to control tantrums, violence, and agitation in children (1), adolescents (2), adults (3), and the elderly (4). Some reviews of psychopharmacology of aggression include a section on anticonvulsants, and some reviews of anticonvulsant use include a section on aggression (3,5). While aggression is typically regarded as a target symptom, there have been efforts to use pharmacological response to classify aggression (6). Here, we extend these efforts and elaborate a tentative, clinically derived nosology of aggression with two major subtypes and four divisions within the second subtype (Table 1). After delineating this classification, we use it to address four clinical issues: when to use an anticonvulsant, which anticonvulsant to use, at what dose and duration, and what to do when treatment response is inadequate.
