The Clinical Neuroscience & Psychotherapeutics Unit (CNPRU) has been in continuous operation since it was established at the Medical College of Pennsylvania (MCP) by Emil Coccaro, M.D. in 1989. At the time, the CNPRU focused on the role of serotonin (5-HT) function and aggression in human subjects. During its ten years at MCP, the CNRPU’s primary activities involved brain neurochemistry studies as well as pharmaco-challenge and platelet studies of 5-HT function in human aggression. The first clinical trials assessing the efficacy of 5-HT Uptake inhibitors to reduce aggressive behavior also took place at MCP, as did work on the development of revised DSM Criteria for Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED; with these revised criteria becoming the DSM-5 Criteria for IED in 2013).
In 1999, Dr. Coccaro moved to the University of Chicago where the CNPRU continued its work with clinical trials of aggression and added Family Studies, Twin Studies, Neuroimaging Studies and Inflammation Studies of IED and Aggression. Work regarding social-emotional information processing (SEIP) in aggression was begun in Chicago and led to the development of an ecologically valid assessment of SEIP (Video-SEIP Assessment), as well as studies involving the neuroscience underlying aberrant SEIP in those with IED.
In 2020, Dr. Coccaro joined the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Heath at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center (OSUMC) as its Vice-Chair of Research and as the George T. Harding, III, M.D., Endowed Professor of Psychiatry. At this time the CNPRU is conducting an NIAAA funded study on the effect of alcohol on SEIP and Aggression, an NINH funded study on the effect of nitrous oxide (“laughing gas) on SEIP and Aggression, and a Pritzker-Pucker Family Foundation (PPFF) funded study testing the efficacy of brain exercises (“neuro-rehab”) on reducing impulsive aggression in individuals with IED.
At this time, the CNPRU has one post-doctoral fellow, three research assistants, one diagnostic assessor, and one research nurse practitioner.