Arguably one among the rarest disorders, pyromania is complicated, both in diagnosis and treatment. Categorized under the impulsive control disorders, pyromania is complicated by the fact that it has quite a number of common characteristics with such ICDs as compulsive gambling, kleptomania, trichotillomania and a few others. The name pyromania is derived from two Greek words, pyr (meaning fire) and mania (meaning madness). While this disorder was the latest to join the list of known ICDs, it has for a long time been associated with social insanity. Before the disorder was scientifically identified, people considered all fires to be arson. Pyromania is an ICD which makes it impossible for the patient to resist the urge or impulse to start a fire. Pyromaniacs start fire, mostly to: relieve tension, seek attention, break away from monotony, and gratify their wild desires. Largely considered as a male disorder, pyromania is associated with the unique sexual urges of men. This paper seeks to explain the scientific aspects of pyromania in terms of causes, diagnosis, symptoms and management.
Causes of Pyromania
Bohne (2010) explains that establishing the causes of pyromania is not the easiest of tasks because the causes vary from one person to another depending on many factors – both personal and environmental. Broadly, the causes of pyromania are divided into two –personal and environmental. The foremost personal cause of pyromania is poor social skills. This is a common cause in children and adolescents. According to research, poor social skills such as lack of communication skills, which are notably the most potent channel of socialization, may cause an individual to be what is colloquially referred to as a loner (Bohne, 2010). Loners have the tendency to relieve tension in socially unacceptable manners. Just like the biggest percentages of serial killers are loners by nature, pyromaniacs are people that do not have permanent friends. This means that they do not trust anyone at all, hence cannot share their stressful moments. As such, they experience abnormal tension build up and find fire to be the most potent way of relieving stress.
The second personal cause of pyromania is the search for recreation. Sensation seeking is a common feature in all children and adolescents that do not have access to proper recreation. As a way of ‘lighting up their lives, they resort to starting fires randomly. According to DSM IV research, seeing fire is the most pleasurable thing to a pyromaniac as such sights relieve tension and leave them with gratification. Grant and Odlaug (2011) argue that attention seeking is another noteworthy personal cause of pyromania. Attention seeking usually occurs in adolescents and children that have absentee parents. As a way of provoking attention from the parents and authorities, they may set property on fires. According to Ganteaume and Jappiot (2012) ignorance is another personal cause that is worth noting. Ignorance bars the pyromaniacs from seeing the dangers of fire. Ultimately, pyromaniac behaviors are associated with the antisocial behaviors of the perpetrators. Research indicates that besides setting fires, pyromaniacs have committed other crimes including non-violent sexual crimes (18%), violent rape (11%) and vandalism of property (19%) (Bohne, 2010).
The second category of causes of pyromaniac tendencies is the environmental category. The foremost environmental cause is neglect and parental carelessness (Grant and Odlaug, 2011). Parents that neglect their children make them vulnerable and likely to be loners, who wish to experiment with virtually everything around them. This way, the children manage to access fire as one of the ways of trying to pre-occupy their loneliness. This way, they find it to be one way of attaining many goals – getting the attention of the parent, dealing with their stresses and attaining instant gratification. Bohne (2010) and Ganteaume (2011) recognize parental psychotherapy as another potential cause of pyromaniac tendencies. Children that experience violence and abuse from their parents are likely to grow into perfect pyromaniacs since they will seek to avenge the ugly occurrences in the future. Peer pressure and stressful lives can be causes as well, especially where the family lacks a father figure (Bohne, 2010).
Symptoms of Pyromania
When a person starts a fire, on the presumption that it was an accident, there are four reasons – covering up a crime, profit, revenge or pyromania. Figuring out the difference between pyromania and the other reasons is not the easiest of tasks as it calls for close analysis. Unlike the criminals, who have malicious intent and ill motives, pyromaniacs are not driven by profit or any selfish interests to start fires. On the contrary, they are guided by tension build ups and the need for gratification. Apparently, the first symptom is that he or she must have started fires more than just once (Ganteaume & Jappiot, 2012). The second symptom of pyromania is a notable buildup of emotions or tension prior to starting a fire. Such emotional buildup is described by Grant and Odlaug (2011) as the immediate motivation to the starting of the fire. The third symptom is the fact that when a pyromania sees a fire, they instantly get excited, feel relaxed and find the experience to be pleasurable. Such fascination and pleasure is the primary symptom. Ultimately pyromaniacs are associated with long-term stress, which is the cause of the emotional build up.
DSM IV TR Diagnosis Criteria
The DSM IV manual outlines six criteria that should be strictly adhered to in the diagnosing of the disorder – pyromania. The first criterion states that the patient does not demonstrate other motives of starting the fire. For instance, all common motives of setting up a fire such as drug abuse, profit intent, delusions, and traumatic brain damage must be ruled out. Eliminating such motives differentiates the pyromaniac from the ordinary criminals. The second criterion states that the fire must have been started deliberately and not accidentally. This criterion further states that the fire must have been started by the same person more than just once.
Thirdly, the person starting the fire must have experienced extreme emotions prior to the incident – he or she must have had an emotional buildup. Fourthly, the patient must demonstrate that he experiences extreme fascination about fire. It is important to mention at this point that pyromaniacs are not only fascinated by fire, but also fire equipment and the sight of firemen reacting to an incident. Fifthly He or she must demonstrate that he gets relieved for starting a fire, or actively participating in the aftermath of a big fire. This may include fascination about seeing the fire authorities fight the fire. Lastly, the sixth criterion states that the fires must be accounted for by an anti-social personality disorder. If a patient meets all the six criteria, he or she should be diagnosed with pyromania.
Treatment or Management of Pyromania
Bohne (2010) explains that most research on the treatment of pyromania is based on children and adolescents. In children and adolescents, cognitive and behavioral therapy is the most common treatment. This therapy seeks to establish the root cause of the disorder. As explained earlier, the causes are extremely varied and change from one person to another. As such, cognitive and behavioral therapy focuses on identifying the primary cause, with the aim of eliminating it, and its associated characteristics. Once the root cause is identified, the therapy is continually applied until the patient recovers. Another approach to the treatment of the disorder is parental training. As mentioned earlier, parents’ approaches in parenting can be a serious cause of pyromania. For instance, abusive parents who batter and sexually abuse their children are bound to raise pyromaniacs (Bohne, 2010). As such, proper conduct from parents can eliminate the possibility of pyromania in children.
According to Ganteaume & Jappiot (2012), the most potent way of managing pyromania is behavior contracting, also referred to as token reinforcement. This is a robust approach that is concerned with training the patients on various ways of reacting to situations, solving problems, and relieving tension and associating positively with peers and relating constructively with their parents. Coupled with covert sensitization, token reinforcement is undoubtedly the most appropriate form of treatment in children. Family therapy is another noteworthy treatment approach. Bohne (2010) explains that family is the smallest functional unit defining the environment. Effectively, changes should start from the family. Family therapy is simply based on improving relationships within the family. Finally, medication is used, but it is usually combined with one or more of the above discussed methods. With regard to medication, anti-depressants are used, especially to deal with the emotional buildup, which has been identified as the single most important immediate cause of the fire.
References
Bohne, A. (2010). Impulse-control disorders in college students. Psychiatry Research, 176(1), 91-92.
Ganteaume, A., & Jappiot, M. (2012). What causes large fires in Southern France. Forest Ecology and Management
Grant, J. E., & Odlaug, B. L. (2011). 26 Assessment and Treatment of Pyromania. The Oxford Handbook of Impulse Control Disorders, 353
