Social and neural determinants of aggressive behavior:: pharmacotherapeutic targets at serotonin, dopamine and γ-aminobutyric acid systems

Background and rationale: Aggressive outbursts that result in harm and injury present a major problem for the public health and criminal justice systems, but there are no adequate treatment options. Obstacles at the level of social policy, institutional regulation, and scientific strategy in developing animal models continue to impede the development of specific anti-aggressive agents for emergency and long-term treatments. Objective: To be more relevant to the clinical situation, preclinical aggression research has begun to focus on the neurobiological determinants of escalated aggressive behavior that exceeds species-typical patterns. It is the goal of this review to examine novel pharmacological and molecular tools that target the neural mechanisms for different kinds of aggressive behavior more selectively than previously possible and to outline potential pharmacotherapeutic options.