Promoting Recovery in Schizophrenia: A Focus on Positive and Negative Symptoms

Christoph U. Correll, MD, is professor of psychiatry and molecular medicine at Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine and medical director of the Recognition and Prevention (RAP) Program at the Zucker Hillside Hospital, both in New York. He is also the director of the Adverse Events Unit and the Core Laboratory Unit at the Zucker Hillside Hospital Advanced Center for Intervention and Services Research. 

Robert W. Buchanan, MD, is currently Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine; Interim Director, Maryland Psychiatric Research Center; Chief of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center (MPRC) Outpatient Research Program; and Director of the Maryland Early Intervention Program. His major research interests include the neurobehavioral and neuroanatomical investigation of the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and the investigation of novel pharmacological approaches for negative symptoms, cognitive impairments, metabolic disturbances, and other side effects associated with antipsychotic treatment, and people with treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Dr. Buchanan has conducted a series of proof-of-concept and clinical trials examining antipsychotic-reduction strategies in the acute and maintenance treatment of schizophrenia; the use of adjunctive pharmacological agents for the treatment of negative symptoms and cognitive impairments; and the comparative efficacy of clozapine and olanzapine for positive and negative symptoms and cognitive impairment in partially responsive outpatients with schizophrenia. Currently, Dr. Buchanan is examining the use of combined anti-inflammatory agents for the treatment of persistent positive symptoms; the efficacy of oxytocin and galantamine for persistent negative symptoms and cognitive impairments; and the efficacy of an intervention, which combines oxytocin and a psychosocial intervention, for improving social function in people with schizophrenia. Dr. Buchanan has been involved in multiple aspects of the Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia (MATRICS) project, including the identification of potential pharmacological targets for the treatment of cognitive impairments and the organization of the FDA/NIMH workshop to develop guidelines for the conduct of clinical trials of cognitive-enhancing drugs. He has served as Co-Principal Investigator on the Treatment Units for Research on Neurocognition and Schizophrenia (TURNS), was the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center site Principal Investigator, and was responsible for the design and conduct of TURNS clinical studies. Dr. Buchanan has had an ongoing role in the development and update of the Schizophrenia Patient Outcomes Research Team (PORT) psychopharmacological treatment recommendations. These are a set of evidence-based recommendations that have influenced the development of various sets of treatment algorithms and guidelines for schizophrenia.

Stephen R. Marder, MD, received his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his medical degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo.  After an internship at Denver General Hospital he completed a residency at the University of Southern California.  From 1975 to 1977 he was a Clinical Associate in the Biological Psychiatry Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health.  In 1977 he joined the staff at the Brentwood VA Medical Center and the faculty at UCLA.
 
Dr. Marder's research has focused on the treatment of schizophrenia and the pharmacology of antipsychotic drugs.  He has authored or co-authored more than 200 journal articles and chapters based on research.  He is currently the Director of the VISN 22 Mental Illness Research, Education Clinical Center (MIRECC) for the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Director of the Section on Psychosis at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.  He was the leader of the NIMH MATRICS program for facilitating the development of drugs for improving neurocognition in schizophrenia and was the Principal Investigator of the NIMH Treatment Units for Research on Neurocognition in Schizophrenia (TURNS) and the Treatment and Evaluation Network for Experimental Targets in Schizophrenia (TENETS).  Dr. Marder is a member of the National VA Committee on the Seriously Mentally Ill.
 
Dr. Marder has received the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, the Stanley Dean Research Award of the American College of Psychiatry, the Alexander Gralnick Award from the American Psychiatric Association, the Outstanding Achievement Award of the Southern California Psychiatric Society,  the Kempf Award from the American Psychiatric Association,  the Wayne Fenton Award for Outstanding Clinical Care from the Schizophrenia Bulletin, and the American Psychiatric Association Award for Research in Psychiatry.  He is listed in The Best Doctors in America and America's Top Doctors.