Alec James Coppen (29 January 1923 – 15 March 2019) was a British

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

. He was given The Pioneers in Psychopharmacology Award in year 2000 by the Collegium Internationale Neuro Psychopharmacologicum. Coppen was born in London, England in January 1923. He received numerous awards, both in the UK and abroad. After army service in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he studied medicine at

Bristol University The University of Bristol is a public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Bristol, which had ...

and at the

Institute of Psychiatry The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) is a centre for mental health and neuroscience research, education and training in Europe. It is dedicated to understanding, preventing and treating mental illness, neurological co ...

in London. Later he was appointed to the Medical Research Council's Neuropsychiatric Research Unit in Epsom, Surrey, England. He is perhaps best known for the introduction of

Serotonin Serotonin (), also known as 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), is a monoamine neurotransmitter with a wide range of functions in both the central nervous system (CNS) and also peripheral tissues. It is involved in mood, cognition, reward, learning, ...

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. He was very impressed by the early work of Mogens Schou in the use of

lithium Lithium (from , , ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard temperature and pressure, standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the ...

in the maintenance treatment of unipolar and bipolar affective disorder, and carried out the first prospective double blind trial, which showed that lithium was very effective in the treatment of both conditions. He worked on

folic acid Folate, also known as vitamin B9 and folacin, is one of the B vitamins. Manufactured folic acid, which is converted into folate by the body, is used as a dietary supplement and in food fortification as it is more stable during processing and ...

in depression from 1970, and consistently found low plasma and red cell folate in patients with severe depression. He also showed that a folic acid supplement improved the prophylactic response to lithium. Antidepressant drugs are relatively weak therapeutic agents, only 60% of patients respond to an antidepressant compared with 40% on placebo. Combining

fluoxetine Fluoxetine, sold under the brand name Prozac, among others, is an Antidepressant, antidepressant medication of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class used for the treatment of major depressive disorder, Anxiety disorder, anx ...

with 0.5 mg of

90% of women patients responded to treatment, an observation that may have massive implications for the treatment of depression.

Personal life

In 1952, Coppen married Gunhild Andersson, who came from Sweden. They had one child Michael, also a doctor. Gunhild died on 26 May 2007, of a sudden illness. He died on 15 March 2019 at the age of 96.Alec Coppen, psychiatrist who investigated the link between serotonin and depression – obituary
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coppen, Alec English psychiatrists 1923 births 2019 deaths Alumni of the University of Bristol British Army personnel of World War II Medical Research Council (United Kingdom) people People educated at Dulwich College