Alec Coppen

Who is Alec Coppen?

Alec Coppen born 29 January 1923 in London, England is a British psychiatrist. He has been widely regarded as one of the pioneers of Biological Psychiatry and Psychopharmacology. He was given The Pioneers in Psychopharmacology Award in year 2000 by the Collegium Internationale Neuro Psychopharmacologicum.

He has received numerous awards, both in the UK and abroad. After army service in World War II, he studied medicine at Bristol University and at the Institute of Psychiatry in London. Later he was appointed to the Medical Research Councils Neuropsychiatric Research Unit in Epsom, Surrey, England. He is perhaps best known for the introduction of Serotonin theory of depression. He followed this by pursuing investigations into free and total tryptophan, post-mortem brain studies of depressed suicides and studies into the platelet transport of serotonin. It is fair to state the introduction of SSRI antidepressants is due to these studies.