Peter Weiden, MD
Investigator
Dr. Peter Weiden is a psychiatrist who specializes in treatment and care of persons with serious psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression. His career has been dedicated to improving clinical outcomes and this mission can be seen in his achievements in teaching, clinical care, advocacy, and research.
Teaching
During his career he has won teaching awards for his teaching in academic medical centers including Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY and UIC Medical Center in Chicago. In 2023 Dr. Weiden rejoined academic psychiatry as a voluntary Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. Dr. Weiden has also published over 100 clinical papers on treatment approaches that have been widely cited in training of residents, and has lectured widely in medical schools psychiatry Grand Rounds
Clinical
His clinical expertise in treating schizophrenia has been recognized by “Best Doctors” of New York City and Chicago, as well as receiving a total of three exemplary psychiatrist awards from National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
Advocacy
For many years Dr. Weiden volunteered his time to teach at the annual meeting of NAMI, and served on the Board of Directors of NAMI New York City Metro, and is on the Scientific Advisory Board of Fountain House. He has recently been elected to the Scientific Advisory Board for Schizophrenia & Psychosis Action Alliance which is the major advocacy organization in the US focused solely on schizophrenia.
Research
His research includes NIMH Awards to develop new approaches to medication adherence and, later, to use CBT principles to better engage young adults contending with what it means to be told of having a schizophrenia diagnosis. Later on, in the 1990s, when new medications showed up in the pipeline, Dr. Weiden became a principal investigator or co-investigator of over 80 clinical trials of investigational therapies for severe psychiatric disorders. In 2016, continued his research by going to full time work at pharmaceutical companies committed to developing new treatment for schizophrenia. Examples include advancing long-acting formulations (Alkermes and aripiprazole lauroxil), and being part of the core medical team at Karuna Therapeutics (now BMS) tasked with starting a successful Phase 3 development program for a novel muscarinic agonist for the treatment schizophrenia that ultimately received FDA approval as COBENFY. He has joined Richmond Behavioral Associates to continue to work on clinical investigation of the many new and exciting investigational treatments that, if successful, may provide additional options above and beyond those currently available.