Observations placeholder
PubMed - Aggression and heavy metals
Identifier
006907
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
I have taken the sentence "it was not possible to replicate findings of others who reported high levels of lead, cadmium, and copper in violent offenders." to mean that other research studies had found a link. It depends on the exposure of the study group of course.
What is of interest here is the source of the heavy metal poisoning - food, cooking utensils, perhaps even the medicines given, it has to come from somewhere. It is the cause, not the effect.
It appears from other observations on this site that all heavy metals at high enough doses are implicated in aggression.
The 'hallucination' classification is a little imprecise as they displayed a whole range of 'psychotic behaviour', which wasn't investigated by type.
A description of the experience
Compr Psychiatry. 1991 May-Jun;32(3):229-37. Abnormalities in hair trace elements as indicators of aberrant behavior. Gottschalk LA, Rebello T, Buchsbaum MS, Tucker HG, Hodges EL.
There are long-standing viewpoints that impulsive and violent behavior may stem from brain dysfunction or damage secondary to head injury, disease, or toxic chemical substances.
This research has aimed to examine the relationship between potentially toxic metals and aberrant behavior, especially violent activity, through the nonintrusive technique of hair analysis for trace elements.
In an initial study, phase I, it was not possible to replicate findings of others who reported high levels of lead, cadmium, and copper in violent offenders. However, high levels of manganese were found in prison versus control groups.
In phase II, the possibility of artifactual results arising from prison cooking utensils was controlled for by sampling early after incarceration.
Phase III was included to substantiate the initial post hoc findings in an additional jail population.
In both latter phases, significantly elevated manganese levels were found in the hair of violent versus nonviolent subjects (P less than .0001).
A review of the effects of manganese at deficient and toxic levels does not provide a simple answer as to why manganese levels are elevated in the hair of individuals who have been incarcerated for violent behavior. Our study does not implicate the prison environment or soaps and shampoos used in California prisons. Other factors, such as alcohol, dietary, or psychosocial factors, might influence manganese levels in hair, or any of these factors might function in combination with mild manganese toxicity to contribute to aberrant behavior.
PMID:1884602
The source of the experience
PubMedConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
Symbols
Science Items
Activities and commonsteps
Activities
Overloads
Copper imbalanceFury, overwhelming rage and anger
Heavy metal poisoning
Lead poisoning
Manganese imbalance