ADHD and Violence?
I was reading news online when I saw two news stories about ADHD and violence.
In story #1 - 9 News in Colorodo reports on Matthew Murray - who shot and killed four people before killing himself in December 07. Toward the bottom of the article, this story reports on how Matthew had ADHD, had been on ritalin in the past, and stopped it at his own request 6 years before the shootings.
In story #2 - An 18 year old young man with untreated ADHD was charged for stabbing someone. One interesting aspect of this story is that this young man could not receive any help or treatment for his ADHD (i.e. non was available, even acknowledged by the judge in the case).
These stories beg the question:
Does ADHD lead to violence?
The answer is yes and no.
When people have untreated ADD or ADHD, they have a higher risk of violence. However, there are many people with ADD or ADHD (even if it is untreated) who are not violent at all.
The diagnosis of ADHD includes the fact that people are impulsive - i.e. they often act before they think. This can be a risk factor for violence.
Some research shows that approximately 50% of people incarcerated have undiagnosed or untreated ADHD.
ADHD is a risk factor for violence.
Treating ADHD lowers that risk.
Do I believe that the diagnosis of ADHD led Matthew Murray to shoot 4 people and then himself?
Do I believe that the diagnosis of ADHD led Alfie Goody to stab someone?
No - I think that would completely over-simplify the issue.
All I can say is that research shows that treating ADHD can reduce the risk of violence.
If your child, teen, spouse, or someone else that you care about has ADD or ADHD, and is showing some violent tendencies - see if you can get treatment for their ADD or ADHD. It may make a big difference.
I realize that this article may be quite controversial for many of you. Please enter your comments below.
Dr. Kenny
p.s. Medications are effective treatments for ADD/ADHD, but many people are reluctant to consider them for many reasons. To get a copy of my 25 page free report, visit Medication Mastery.
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Written by Dr. Kenny Handelman - The ADHD Doctor
To find get a FREE special report on ADD/ADHD Medication, visit: Medication Mastery
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February 29th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
It seems to happen a lot when a patient stops taking medication, or changes dosage somehow.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:28 am
I agree, but what has to be taken into consideration is the environment these kids grew up in. There are too many variables to consider with this topic. Certainly to seek professional help is huge but how many families have the foresight to act let alone know what to look for in a child who is just seemingly being a teenager. Then if you have a kid who is just going through the motions of being an angery teen and send them to all these doctors, I wonder about the effects it could have. But in situations it is safer to have a child evaluated than to have something potentially seriously wrong going on and play the wait and see game.
I was a pretty angery kid with ADHD and believe me when I tell you my mother earned every grey hair on her head, but I never crossed the line of serious violence. Impulsivity control yes, school yard fights yes, several, but those lines never came close to being crossed.
To assume it was ADHD would be a critical mistake, there is something more going on with these kids and the information needed is unavaliable. Shots in the dark…:/
March 4th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
hey im the man dr kenny is talking bout there, my name’s alfie goodey form folkestone not alfie goody ha, anyways yeah its taken me over 2years now to get the court case over with and now i’ve got a supsneded sentance hopefully i’ll be haveing some medical treatment soon hopefully!!! its taken 2 years and abit to get my ritlian my mum is terriofired that my temper and my medical problem could cause something as dangerous as this again. thanks for puttin me on here and some one has took in my stroy in the papers laterly at least some one is looking into something. take care.
alfie
March 5th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Speaking as a mother of a child with ADHD and Conduct disorder I can tell you that this type of extreme behaviour is something that is both scary and obvious. Someone with mild ADHD and not impulsive is obviously not going to be as extreme as those described above. Since going off his meds - last year my son escalated from throwing objects to threatening to set my bedroom on fire - this has NOTHING to do with the loving environment he lives in. I have an older teenager who is typical in his behaviours - not extreme. Having also recently seen the change in my son - back on medication within 1 week - we are able to see he controls his impulses and the anger has begun to be within more reasonable levels. You know in your gut when kids are acting outside of the realm of normal….. If impulse control with ADHD kids is extreme - they can’t control the moments when they “snap”
My two cents…
March 6th, 2008 at 12:07 am
In one instance the youth also has Aspergers Syndrome which could certainly have played a role in his difficulties. It is possible, given the high incidence of co-morbidity of ODD with ADHD, that either one or both of these youth could have also had ODD. That complicates things a whole lot!!
March 6th, 2008 at 4:12 am
I am the mother of a 17 year old adhd chlid. I tried ritalin when he was 7 for 1.5 years and took him off as he was having heart throbs, insomnia, and said he felt like he was living in a cartoon world along with anxiety attacks. He did do better in school but the side effects scared me. After I took him off it was ON…kicked out of school twice for behavior problems and some aggressive behavior. I was gong through menopause at the time he was in 3rd grade and as a single mom had had alot of my own issues and did not handle my own anger well at times. It was very hard to parent an adhd child 85% of the time. He was gifted and ended up in a GATE school recruited because of his test scores but he tells me now he never had any friends nor felt like he fit in with any crowd in any school.
His anger was getting out of control as he hit 7th grade. He still backed down in 7th grade with discipline but started to show anger problems and out lashes soon after. In 9th grade it got so bad that he even started getting into fights and getting kicked out of high school. He tried football and loved it but would often feel disconnected from being part of the team because of forgetfulness and impulsiveness. (being different) I put him on Strattera and it worked as far as calming him down and helping fhim to focus but he soon reacted with not only anger but RAGE at times. He got mad at his step father and took a baseball bat to his lamp on the bedside table and to his brand new oak dresser. He told me that it was better than pounding his step father’s brand new Honda motorcycle whicn is what he wanted to do and far better than pounding his stepfather to death which was his first desire. I took him him off of strattera. His RAGE problem got better very soon afterwards.
Even after strattera however, he has gotten a bit physical with me, and has broken many things in our home along with threatened to burn down the house and do things to our cars when he does not get his way or when he is confronted with sometihng he did wrong. He has spent time in Juvenile Hall as I did not let him get away with violence andhe just got off informal probation. He is glad of that.
He has little or no respect for me or my husband (resentments toward my husband as well with some very good reasons, (no bonding was really done by his step dad and certainly no understanding of adhd much at all). Sarcasm was used by my husband alot and we got into it and still do at times behind that kind of thing but it has gotten better.
His real dad whom he did not get to know but had recently began talking to him, commited suicide on Oct 20th, 07, and left that terrible legacy for my son. My son grieves for the hope he had at one time of getting to know his dad and now that hope is gone.
My son is smart and graduating high school (a charter school this, his junior year. but is a terrible procrastinator. ) He drinks alchohol (went on a binge a few weeks ago for 5 days straight) and smokes pot (he has stopped pot for awhile so he can get a job) but I have to watch him at every corner to make sure he does not drink as I am afraid of him becoming an alcoholic.
He is in counseling with a LCSW which is proving so far to be much better than the other psychologists we have tried. My son is a really intelligent, nice kid but he struggles with life’s pressures as an adhd child who has lost so much this last year….His drivers license, use of his car, has 2 points on his license already in which it will cost him more money for insurance, his job he lost, his girlfriend moved back to Kentucky, and he has stolen a very important 100.00 bill from his step father in which his stepfather does not know as yet. I told him he needs to tell him but he is hoping that he will be gone to Kentuck y to be wth his girlfriend before my husband finds out. I was advised by my brother to let my son handle this by himself and stay out of it but I feel like the hatchet is gonna fall any moment. (my husband is gonna blow a gasket when he finds out). My son says he doesn’t care if the ___hole finds out or not.
I am so afraid for my son because he thinks he knows it all…the worst kind of know it all. He bucks authority and believes that all cops are ___holes and so is anyone who gives him guidelines that he does not believe in or want to live by.
On the other hand the strange thing is that he gets over his rages fairly fast and after a blow up in the family, he can come out of his room and instead of escalating the previous situation, he calmly, in a good kids voice as if nothing happened ask me nicely, “mom can you fix me somethgn to eat?” and then begin inteerracting with the family normally. I have reently started to hold off wth alot of reacting or responding to his outbursts, understanding that he will calm down in a few minutes.
I am afraid for him as he thinks he will just leave home and start his life out without us and do fine…Truth is that he is NOT ready for the real world. Street wise is one thing but going out without a job, nor the maturity to handle being on your own with a young girlfriend (who constantly pressures him to get back to Kentucky and marry him and who purposely pushes his buttons al the time and gets him really mad) drives me crazy myself to think of what he may setting himself up for. Fatal attraction???
I would give anything to just let go and let things happen as they may but as impulsive as he is I feel like I am spinning my wheels as fast as i can to get him on track before Dec 22nd (his 18th birthday). Any answers that may help me please write me. MySlenderDreams@aol.com Linda
March 6th, 2008 at 10:59 am
I am a mom with 5 children, out of those five I have one diagnosed ADHD and one that is Bi polar. That being said I also have a teenager!!lol. So I have seen my share of violence. The violence stems from a fustration level in these children, either with a situation they are involved in at school or home or just simply with a friend! It is the only way they reason to get someones attention. The violence is their final extreme of saying “im angry and need help coping! When I see the violence starting I have to stop everything I am doing and just go sit beside the child for 5 minutes and say “Hey what’s up???” And the anger usually subside. Now that being said I know it is extremely hard in this day and age when both parents are working and we have 500 other things to do between now and tomorrow and we can’t always just say stop!! But trust me if we could just as a parent just take two minutes to say hey what’s up?? it does deminish some of the violence! Some days I get very little accomplished, but there is always tomorrow. Let’s face it - in ADD and ADHD what does the first letter stand for!! Now that being said it won’t work with your teenager-let’s face it if we dared somedays to look at them - well if you have a teenager you understand. We have to stop and listen to these guys before they get to being a teen, that way hopefully when they get to that point we have built some gateway into at least listening to them.
March 6th, 2008 at 11:59 am
I have a spiritual bias as I work in this field. I have asked fellow pastors on medication for various things whether they feel they could have coped with their affliction if they lived in a different era and medication was not available. They agreed they could have. The medication simply helps deal with their mental health issues so much easier. In my case I can say I could hold back from acting violently without medication. But beginning medication a couple years ago at 52 helped me immensely with my tolerance for handling frustrations and took an “edge”, a pressure off me. I am much less impulsive with things I say that used to have an aggressive edge to them. Feeling less pressured physically and mentally in dealing with things helps immensely, though I still believe that acting out violently is primarily a spiritual issue.
March 7th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
The media is always quick to assume a link with medication and violence. As Dr. Kenny pointed out, these boys/young men were at a higher risk beccause of their impulsivness. Their risk could havebeen increased by their neighborhoods, their lack of employment, their homelife and a thousand other factors. We must continue to educate the public that medication is a tool along several others that help young people with this condition. Not all kids are medication are timebombs.
March 10th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
I grew up with undiagnosed ADHD. I am now an adult withADHD trying to live without medication. I was on meds early on when I was first diagnosed. I choose not to continue. I have realized that rage is a potential act for me. I do get angry but I can easily go into a rage if I allow it. For me, I have had to go through therapy for many, many years and learn behavior modification and triggers for my anger and rage. It is still not easy but so far I have been managing. I now have a daughter and grandsons who I suspect have ADHD with tendencies to exhibit anger and rage. My 16 year old granson was diagnosed with ADD at age 6. My second grandson is diagonosed with depression with mild hints of ADD. B7ut my daughter does not seem to think that it demands immediate or consistent attention. I have given up trying to get her to pay attention. She, herself will not get diagnosed. You can imagine how that household is on some days. I am learning to let go and let God.
I fear for the potential violence in any situation. We have the same concerns here where I live. I am not so sure though that we can blame everything on the ADD / ADHD. At some point, don’t individuals have to take some responsibilty? I too have mixed feelings on this.
Thanks Dr. Kenny for give us some input, teaching and sharing with us so that we can see things more clearly, I so appreciate this blog and reading other peoples’ comments.
March 11th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Dear Dr. Kenny. So priviledged to have contact with you although only by writing. I live in Sout Africa, Pretoria. I have two boys ages 6 and 4. My oldest was diagnosed by a Dr. Ladicos with ADD. She recommended Ritalin 10. Before the medicine he was a angry, agressive child and doing homework with him was a battle. Yes. At 6, and in pre-school, homework must be done. He got very aggressive with his grandma, who looked after them in the afternoons but to prevent anything bad of happening I did the second best thing and kept them after school for 3 days of the week. That helped but still there was fireworks with him and the whole rest of my family. I am only 38 years old but I feel tired. He went on Ritalin 10 since our school term started in middle January and the change was amazing. Homework is a breeze and he actually want to learn more. Although his eating habits became better, he still does not take authority from his grandma and father which makes life very difficult for me. his grandma and father can say and do whatever, he will not do homework given by them. He only listens to me and react on my requests. I am totally dedicated to them but see this as a problem for the future and I do not know what to do about it. He eats when he is hungry and that is not always the same times than the rest of the family. He does not like to have dirty fingers and play with his cars by putting them in perfect order behind each other etc. Everything must be in its place. He loves animals and know all the sounds to the animals he has seen. He loves National Geographic and does not know goofy or donald duck or any cartoons for that matter.
I am not scared for what the future hold but what I do not know is, how will I know that the longterm effect of ritalin 10 will be positive in his life? Although I can see it now, do you think he will need to go on stronger and stronger medicine as he gets older?
His father, by the way, is also the same than him but that went untreated. He has been in trouble for his temper with the officials but he is already 43 years and I need to batlle both their rage somedays when they feel like it. It makes me crazy, so by so, that I feel I want to take the kids and just go but then again, I will show my kids that giving up on somebody, which have a problem is easier than to handle it. Hard but true.
Looking forward to hearing from you. Greetings from sunny South Africa.
Anisa
April 2nd, 2008 at 1:37 pm
To all those out there with ADD, ADHD, ODD, Bipolar etc I really do feel for you all.
It is a cruel and nasty illness and those that are not involved in these illnessess need to know that these suffers need support and a lot of reassurance and love.
Parents of these sufferers also need the same, as they are also pushed to their limits. They DO care immensly about their childs wellbeing, although the ‘Proffessionals’ out there, namely Social Services, Police etc think these parents don’t care and it is their parenting and there is no changing their minds. This causes more stress on the parents than the actual ADH I think.
I consider life a million times harder when you have a child with ADHD etc but much more rewarding.
I am a parent of an 8yrs old who has ADHD combined, ODD and many traits that tag alongside ADHD. I have known he has had ADHD since he was 18mths/2yrs and no-one listened. 2yrs ago he got diagnosed. Today his meds were increased to 60mgs Equasym XL alongside 18mls of Stratterra, his theropy starts in 2 weeks.
6plus yrs Ive researched, fought, written millions of letters, I’ve pushed and demanded things, I’ve threatened everybody.
My son is 1 of 6 children, my others are fine. So, I DO KNOW IT’S NOT ME.
ADHD makes my life a living hell, my son makes me want to help him and others like him. And I will as I love him to bits.
YOU ALL DESERVE LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING ALL OF THE TIME
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July 1st, 2008 at 9:04 pm
ADHD and Violence? | ADD ADHD Blog.com…
When people have untreated ADD or ADHD, they have a higher risk of violence. However, there are many people with ADD or ADHD (even if it is untreated) who are not violent at all….
July 11th, 2008 at 1:47 am
As an adult who was previously diagnosed as having bi-polar disorder and eventually reevaluated as having adult ADHD I can honestly say that I have had a lifelong battle with my temper. Often feeling frustrated and misunderstood I would lash out at those around me impulsively. The reason I was initially misdiagnosed was because of the history of rages. Now that I am on Vyvanse I am doing much better all around. No violent fits, no anxiety, no irritability. I am able to get things done when I need to and I do not feel overwhelmed. Although psychotherapy can be beneficial, I honestly believe that the right medication is paramount to leading a sane life. Unfortunately two of my grown daughters are still being treated as bi-polar patients when there is a definite probability that they suffer from ADHD as well. The reason for this is also a history of rages. More people need to get the word out that ADHD can cause one to act out violently. In this way more patients will get the correct diagnosis and be on the road to a medicated recovery quicker. At least that is my viewpoint.