Pyromania: What It Is, Symptoms, Characteristics And Treatment

Fires can be devastating, both in rural and urban environments. Fire destroys everything in its path and can have material, personal and social consequences.

On many occasions, the hand of man is behind a fire, whether intentionally or negligently. When it is an intentional act, we can find several causes that lead a person to start a fire. We normally refer to these people as “arsonists” but do you really know what pyromania consists of? In this PsychologyFor article, we talk to you about pyromania: what it is, symptoms, characteristics and treatment.

What is pyromania?

In both the American Psychiatric Association’s psychology dictionary and the ICD-11 classification, the meaning of pyromania is described as a repeated failure to resist impulses to set fires.

Pyromania is a psychological disorder included in the main diagnostic classifications: DSM-5 of the American Psychiatric Association⁽¹⁾ and ICD-11 of the World Health Organization⁽²⁾. In the DSM-5 it is included within the category “Destructive Impulse and Behavior Control Disorders” and in the ICD-11 within “Impulse Control Disorders.”

Are all people who set fires arsonists? Not necessarily. When considering pyromania as a disorder, it must meet a series of criteria to be diagnosed. Next, we will tell you what peculiarities and symptoms it requires.

ymptoms of pyromania

To expose the symptoms of pyromania we follow the criteria set out in the DSM-5 classification. Let’s see what they are:

• Repeated, deliberate and intentional setting of fires: This criterion rules out negligent setting of fires. The person must cause more than one fire and must do so deliberately.
• Tension or excitement prior to starting fires: the person feels excited before starting the fire and that makes him or her want to do it more.
• interest in fire: The arsonist feels a special interest in fire and the entire context that surrounds it. He is curious and/or attracted to the consequences of starting the fire, mobilizing the means that move to extinguish the fire, etc.
• Pleasure when starting fire: Far from feeling unpleasant emotions, the arsonist feels pleasure, gratification or relief when he sets fires. The same thing happens when the person witnesses or participates in its consequences.
• Lack of apparent motivation to start the fires: a person can intentionally set fires for various reasons, for example, economic, socio-political or religious ideas, personal revenge, acts of vandalism, etc. In the case of pyromania, the person does not have any of these intentions. Behind his behavior there are no secondary interests other than the pleasure and excitement they experience around setting the fire.
• Absence of other mental disorders: The setting of fires is not better explained by the presence of another disorder such as a conduct disorder, manic episode, antisocial personality disorder, schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders, etc.

Characteristics of pyromania

Pyromania is not a very common disorder. In fact, there are studies in which we have tried to investigate and in which the participants could rarely be diagnosed with pyromania. It is difficult to find the profile of arsonist as described in the diagnostic classifications, since in the experimental context it has been common to find, precisely, disorders comorbid to pyromania.

According to the Manual of Psychopathology and Psychological Disorders⁽³⁾the characteristics of pyromania are the following:

• The disorder seems start in adolescence and tend to become chronic.
• seems to have a higher prevalence in men than in women s.
• More common in people who have intelligence below the norm l.

Following Scott Johnson, R. and Netherton, E. (2016)⁽⁴⁾, pyromaniac behaviors in children appear more commonly together with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The same authors also expose some factors associated with the development of the disorder such as abuse or family stress.

Pyromania treatment

The treatment of pyromania consists of both the administration of drugs and psychological therapy, in which we highlight cognitive behavioral therapy.

• Drugs: selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, lithium, antiepileptic medication, atypical antipsychotics and antiandrogens.
• Cognitive behavioral therapy: appears to be promising in the intervention of this disorder. It is aimed at working in several directions, specifically, in identifying the excitement phase prior to starting the fire, searching for and modifying irrational ideas, providing and/or improving the patient’s self-control strategies, etc.

This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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