IPSAPIRONE NEUROENDOCRINE CHALLENGE - RELATIONSHIP TO AGGRESSION AS MEASURED IN THE HUMAN LABORATORY

Thirty-one human subjects were administered a neuroendocrine challenge with the 5-HT1a agonist ipsapirone after completing six sessions of a laboratory measure of aggression, the Point Subtraction Aggression Pa radigm (C) (PSAP), in order to determine if a laboratory measure of ag gression was related to serotonin function. Subjects who showed more a ggressive responding on the PSAP (n = 11) had a significantly blunted temperature response to ipsapirone compared to those with less aggress ive responding (n = 20). There was no difference between the two group s on the cortisol response to ipsapirone. This study supports a relati onship between serotonin function and aggression as measured in the hu man laboratory, similar to the well-documented association between sel f-reported aggression and serotonin. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. Ail rights reserved.