Peter J Weiden MD is an internationally recognized expert in schizophrenia. His academic focus began during his residency where he did the first systemic study of under-recognition of drug-induced movement disorders that justified the addition of movement disorders to DSM-IV. His work expanded to the public health problem of medication nonadherence, leading to NIMH-funding to study this problem in depth, providing crucial data used for development of innovative adherence interventions. Examples include the first modern randomized study of an atypical oral vs LAI in first-episode schizophrenia, and developing a psychosocial intervention that focuses on improving adherence indirectly by strengthening the therapeutic alliance.
In 2016, Dr. Weiden joined industry to continue schizophrenia research. He was the Schizophrenia Lead at Alkermes from 2016-2020 and worked on development of LYBALVI and ARISTADA. in 2020 he joined Karuna as VP Medical to work Phase 3 program of the muscarinic treatment xanomeline/trospium (later approved as COBENFY).
In 2023, Dr. Weiden joined SUNY Stony Brook Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and teaches PGY2 and PGY3 courses on psychopharmacology, CBT for psychosis, and movement disorders. He continues research of investigational treatments for psychiatric disorders at Richmond Behavioral Associates located on Staten Island.
Dr. Weiden is a renowned educator and has been a faculty at USPC Annual Meetings for over 25 years. His current focus is to help strengthen the depth of clinical skills in working with seriously ill patients, which is a “lost art” that is urgently needed as new treatments for schizophrenia become available.