[Dailydrool] More on rage syndrome

[Val Brewer]

After sending in my earlier posting, it occurred to me that I could go poking around on the Internet myself and see what I could find about "rage syndrome" in dogs and in humans and what was the current thinking about causes, treatability, relationship to seizure disorders or brain damage. I found a number of articles, none of which impressed me with thoroughness, but I can summarize from a number of them. Apparently what is called "rage syndrome" in dogs is a description of symptoms such as have already been noted on the Drool--unpredictable episodes of violent behavior, often preceeded by a "glazed look" and followed by apparent unawareness of damage inflicted. This sort of problem is most common in Springer Spaniels or other spaniel groups and has also been called "springer rage". From here the "experts" differ a good bit. The best discussion specifically related to dogs that I found was at essfta.org/Health_Research/aggression.htm  
 
The vet writing this article suggested that she believed there were at least 20 different forms of agressive problems in dogs. She described a few common types-- dominance aggression, fear aggression. Both of these could benefit by behavioral therapy and seratonin increasing drugs. Apparently the "glazed" look in springers about to explode, if it is a dominance aggression type of problem, represents intense concentration and dilated eyes because of increased nervous system activation. A totally different type of aggression was caused "mental lapse" aggression, probably due to brain injury and seizure activity but since this type does not respond to anticonvulsant medication, it is deemed incurable and euthanasia is usually done. The third time of rage attacks also result from seizures in the temporal or limbic areas of the brain but respond better to anticonvulsants used for other types of epilepsy and so are more manageable. The vet points out it
 is imperative to figure out what type of rage problem is being treated since group 1 would be treated with behavioral training and antidepressants, group three with anticonvulsants like Dilantin, and nothing much works with group 2 (which is the rarest, but still occurs). This article cited irregular EEG spikes indicative of seizure activity occurring in types 2 and 3, but not in the dominance type of aggression.
 
The articles pertaining to humans with explosive rage coming out of nowhere predictable usually tied this to temporal lobe epilepsy with involvement of the limbic system. Epilepsy in both humans and dogs can be complex--it is an overfiring of electric neurons in the brain--and can itself be caused by a bunch of different things, such as lesions, brain injuries, tumors. I know that some Droolers are vets, some physicians, some medics, some nurses, and you may be better able to explain than I am. Seems to me that if you have a dog with "rage syndrome" it would be incredibly important to consult with a vet with neurology knowledge to get a picture of which kind of issue was at hand. Behavioral therapy won't fix a brain tumor, for example.
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