Domestic violence is a problem of major proportions in the United States. The majority of studies pertaining to the etiology of domestic violence have focused on psychosocial parameters with little emphasis on biological factors. We analyzed data obtained from PET imagining and found that perpetrators of domestic violence have decreased glucose metabolism in the hypothalamus compared to controls. Perpetrators also showed decreased correlations in glucose metabolism between several cortical and subcortical structures and the amygdala. This published data provides the basis for us to integrate the behaviors and psychiatric diagnoses of perpetrators of domestic violence with abnormalities in the structures and pathways that control the expression of fear-induced aggression. Currently, we have sent a manuscript for review and publication proposing a model which attributes many of the behaviors demonstrated by perpetrators of domestic violence as being conditioned fear responses (i.e., fight, flight, shutdown) or conditioned fear avoidant responses (i.e., alcohol consumption, self-injurious behaviors). It is our goal that this model will form the basis for future research in order to better understand and to treat perpetrators of domestic violence.
