As a result of this wonderful feedback from a mom in the online GABA program, I’ve been looking into GABA-anger connections. I’ve been trying to understand how GABA could offer similar benefits to tryptophan/5-HTP for anger, rage and dark moods, which we typically associate with low serotonin. She shares this:
My son who is 19 and on the autism spectrum was having issues with outbursts of anger and stuttering. These issues seemed to worsen during his senior year of high school. Since starting GABA and tailoring his dosage from Trudy’s instruction and feedback, we have seen a 90% reduction in stuttering and 80% reduction in anger and outbursts. We have done many supplemental protocols over the years and this is one of the few we have seen have an impact.
I am so happy for this young man and his family, and was also very intrigued. I’ve seen GABA help with stuttering. I have not noticed that GABA helps very much with anger/rage in clients but possibly because they are making other changes at the same time. Since they were in the program and he also had anxiety, we decided to continue with GABA.
I worked with them in the program over a few months and know he only changed one thing – GABA, starting low and increasing to find his ideal dose (with my guidance).
So I started to dig into the research, search through prior blog posts and ask on Facebook and the feedback is robust – folks are seeing GABA help with symptoms of anger and rage.
I share a few case studies below: how PharmaGABA helps a 9 year old boy with rages (part of his OCD/PANS), how GABA helps a young boy with Lyme-induced anger and how GABA helps a 9 year old girl with anger and dark moods (part of her PCOS).
I also share my insights with each case. And some possible mechanisms because we always want to understand why.
PharmaGABA helps 9 year old with rages that are part of his OCD/PANS
Kathy shares how pharmaGABA helped her son (on a pharmaGABA blog):
My 9 year old son had a lot of benefits from PharmaGABA. He used to have rages as part of his OCD/PANS. PharmaGaba 3 times a day was a miracle to get him through that period.
PANS is a neuropsychiatric disorder that falls under the same umbrella as PANDAS but is triggered by an infection other than strep.
If you’re new to PANS/PANDAS, I share the definition of PANDAS, from the PANDAS Network, in this blog: “PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections) occurs when strep triggers a misdirected immune response that results in inflammation on a child’s brain. In turn, the child quickly begins to exhibit life changing symptoms such as OCD/obsessive compulsive order, anxiety, tics, personality changes, decline in math and handwriting abilities, sensory sensitivities, restrictive eating, and more.”
Both PANS and PANDAS trigger OCD/obsessive compulsive disorder. OCD is typically supported with tryptophan and/or inositol i.e. these obsessive thinking and behaviors are typically related to low serotonin even when there is an infection involved. The infection needs to be addressed but the tryptophan and/or inositol help to ease the obsessive symptoms.
Rage is a common symptom when serotonin is low. Tryptophan addresses low serotonin and can have a huge impact as I share in this blog – Rage, anxiety, cravings & insomnia in 11-year old girl with RAD/reactive attachment disorder: chewable tryptophan turns things around.
However, in this instance, pharmaGABA worked for the rages Kathy’s son experienced.
PharmaGABA is one form of GABA that has been shown to help with relaxation and anxiety.
GABA helps a young boy with Lyme-induced anger
Another mom shared this on a Lyme disease post on Facebook:
One kid has developed fits of anger that come out of nowhere but the GABA seems to be able to help him to play longer periods.
Lyme disease can also have a neuropsychiatric aspect, as shared by Dr. Suruchi Chandra MD. I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Chandra on one of the Anxiety Summits and hear her present at integrative mental health conferences.
In one conference presentation she shared this: “Lyme disease is one of the fastest growing infectious diseases in the United States. It can remain dormant for years and then later mimic a number of psychiatric illnesses, including anxiety disorders, mood disturbances, psychosis, and autism-like behaviors. It can be further complicated by the presence of co-infections.”
Anger and rage are also common symptoms. In one study, “Lyme rage” is described as an anger episode that “had a very abrupt onset and was extremely intense and often with minimal cognitive control.”
Yet again, we often see GABA help ease some of the anxiety symptoms, as I share here – GABA helps with Lyme anxiety (while addressing the underlying disease).
However in this instance, GABA helped with her son’s anger symptoms induced by the Lyme bacteria.
GABA helps a 9 year old girl with anger and dark moods (part of her PCOS)
Debbie was diagnosed with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) and GABA helped ease her lifelong anxiety, wean off anxiety medication, ovulate each month and stop her PCOS medications. She was thrilled that GABA helps her daughter too. She shared how her oldest daughter who is 9 has been showing early signs of developing PCOS and other issues similar to hers:
When her mood started changing and she was getting angry out of nowhere and very dark and moody, I started her on a small dose of GABA. Immediately both of us saw the difference in her mood. She now asks for her “happy pills” daily because she doesn’t want to feel those dark feelings anymore. I wish this information was around when I was young. It could’ve helped so much of what I had to struggle with for years.
I typically think of tryptophan or 5-HTP as “happy pills”, and anger and a dark mood as symptoms of low serotonin.
However, yet again, GABA resolves these symptoms in Debbie’s daughter.
These are just a few of the many recent success stories I’ve heard about GABA and anger/rage.
Does low GABA anger/rage look different from low serotonin anger-rage?
This is all new to me so I honestly don’t know. We do know that low GABA leads to more of a physical kind of anxiety (i.e. felt in the body) and it’s different from low serotonin worry-type anxiety (i.e. it’s felt in the head).
Therefore, it’s possible that low GABA anger and rage has more of a physical aspect too.
I have yet to explore this aspect but feel it may be helpful to figure out if there is a difference in order to effectively use the neurotransmitter symptoms questionnaire. This questionnaire is used to decide whether to trial GABA or tryptophan/5-HTP and the low GABA section will be updated with anger/rage once I’ve gone a bit deeper with all this.
The kind of anger symptoms may well look the same and then we’ll use the clustering of either low GABA or low serotonin symptoms to base our decision for doing an amino acid trial.
Research: GABA may be critical in the neurochemical control of aggressive behavior and rage
There is no research that I am aware of where the amino acid GABA has been used to ease rage, anger or dark moods.
However, this letter, Tiagabine for Rage, Aggression, and Anxiety published in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscicnes in 2015 offers some round-about support to this GABA-rage observation. They are discussing patients with treatment-resistant rage and aggression and they propose that:
Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter, may be critical in the neurochemical control of aggressive behavior.
They share that the prescription medication called Tiagabine, a selective GABA reuptake inhibitor (SGRI), increases synaptic GABA availability.
And that 20 out of 36 patients aged 15-54 years (69%)
with symptoms of rage, aggression, or anxiety in association with one or more of the following disorders: bipolar, intermittent explosive, major depression, panic disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or substance abuse …demonstrated a good or excellent response to tiagabine, with reduction or elimination of the symptoms of rage, aggression, or anxiety.
This and the few studies on anger and glutamate (like this one) offer the most plausible explanations for the quick results we expect when using GABA and other amino acids i.e. quick as in results in 1-30 minutes.
Other than this there is not much direct evidence supporting this GABA-rage connection. GABA likely also helps quickly because of reduced anxiety, improved sleep, and being easil able to quit or eat less sugar (and in adults quit alcohol).
Based on some research I’ve found and my experience with GABA, I suspect GABA may also help in these ways over a longer period: countering a histamine reaction, reducing inflammation and impacting cytokines, improving progesterone levels, beneficial impacts on the microbiome, supporting the liver and toxin removal (such as fluorides), gut healing and reducing high blood pressure. I am still digging into the research.
I thank these families for sharing their stories so we all benefit.
I also really appreciate this opportunity to learn from you – my community – and I will always strive to keep an open mind.
Resources if you are new to using amino acids as supplements
If you are new to using amino acids as supplements, here is the Amino Acids Mood Questionnaire from The Antianxiety Food Solution (you can see all the symptoms of neurotransmitter imbalances, including low GABA and low serotonin).
If you suspect low levels of any of the neurotransmitters and do not yet have my book, The Antianxiety Food Solution – How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood, and End Cravings, I highly recommend getting it and reading it before jumping in and using amino acids on your own so you are knowledgeable. And be sure to share it with the practitioner/health team you or your loved one is working with.
There is an entire chapter on the amino acids and they are discussed throughout the book in the sections on gut health, gluten, blood sugar control, sugar cravings, anxiety and mood issues.
The book doesn’t include product names (per the publisher’s request) so this blog, The Antianxiety Food Solution Amino Acid and Pyroluria Supplements, lists the amino acids that I use with my individual clients and those in my group programs. You can find them all in my online store.
If, after reading this blog and my book, you don’t feel comfortable figuring things out on your own (i.e. doing the symptoms questionnaire and respective amino acids trials), a good place to get help is the GABA QuickStart Program (if you have low GABA symptoms too). This is a paid online/virtual group program where you get my guidance and community support.
[The 19 year old young man/his mother was in the above GABA Quickstart program. It is in the process of being updated and a deep dive GABA program being created. Sign up above to be notified when both are ready].If you are a practitioner, join us in The Balancing Neurotransmitters: the Fundamentals program. This is also a paid online/virtual program with an opportunity to interact with me and other practitioners who are also using the amino acids.
Has GABA helped you or your child with symptoms of anger, rage or a dark mood? And if yes, how did it help, how much helped and which product helped?
Can you be sure GABA helped i.e. is this the only change you made?
Has serotonin support with tryptophan or 5-HTP also helped? And if yes how would you describe the low serotonin anger symptoms vs the low GABA anger symptoms? Are they different?
If you are a practitioner, have you observed any of the above?
Feel free to post your feedback and questions here in the comments.