Translational Medicine Strategies for Drug Development for Impulsive Aggression

Abstract Aggressive behavior impacts the aggressive individual and the target of that behavior. It occurs in impulsive and premeditated forms that typically coexist in the same individuals. Individuals with recurrent, problematic, impulsive aggressive behavior typically meet DSM criteria for intermittent explosive disorder (IED), and current estimates place the lifetime prevalence of IED in the US adult population at no less than 3.6% (not including individuals in which these behaviors occur only during the course of other disorders). Several decades of research have uncovered many of the cognitive/system neuroscience and neurobiological correlates of impulsive aggression, and this work has been and continues to be the basis for the development of strategies aimed at reducing impulsive aggression in human subjects. This paper reviews this field, in this regard, and discusses how experimental medicine designs can be used to further the development of agents with antiaggressive efficacy.