Prof. Christoph U. Correll

Christoph U. Correll is Professor of Psychiatry at The Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, New York, USA, and also Professor and Chair of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany. He completed his medical studies at the Free University of Berlin in Germany, and Dundee University Medical School in Scotland. He is board certified in general psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry, having completed both residencies at The Zucker Hillside Hospital in New York. Since 1997, he has been working and conducting research in New York, USA, and since 2017 he is also working in Germany again.

Professor Correll focuses on the identification and treatment of youth and adults with severe mental illness, including schizophrenia, mood disorders, aggression-spectrum disorders and eating disorders, clinical trials, epidemiology, psychopharmacology, meta-analyses, and the interface between physical health and mental health.

He has authored or co-authored over 900 journal articles that have been cited more than 82.000 times and received over 40 research awards for his work. In October 2024, his h-index was 146 in Google Scholar, with an h-index >100 in the last 5 years alone.

Since 2014, he has been listed annually by Clarivate/Web of Science as one of the “most influential scientific minds” and “top 1% cited scientists in the area of psychiatry”.

https://publons.com/researcher/2796036/christoph-u-correll/

Additionally, he has been holding numerous Expertscape rankings based on the number of publications and citations in the past 10 years, i.e., for 15 topics as “Expert” (among the top 1% cited scientists), and 24 topics as “World Expert” (among the top 0.1% cited scientists), including in September 2024 ranked as number one among world experts for the following areas:

1. Central nervous system agents, out of 308,311 scientists (https://expertscape.com/ex/central+nervous+system+agents)
2. Psychotropic drugs, out of 131,808 scientists (https://expertscape.com/ex/psychotropic+drugs)
3. Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders, out of 94,268 scientists (https://expertscape.com/ex/schizophrenia+spectrum+and+other+psychotic+disorders)
4. Schizophrenia, out of 90,874 scientists (https://expertscape.com/ex/schizophrenia)
5. Tranquilizing agents, out of 71,122 scientists (https://expertscape.com/ex/tranquilizing agents)
6. Weight gain, out of 68,578 scientists (https://expertscape.com/ex/weight+gain)
7. Delayed-action preparations out of 68,517 ranked scientists (https://expertscape.com/ex/delayed-action+preparations)
8. Antipsychotics, out of 60,313 scientists (https://expertscape.com/ex/antipsychotics)

Despite the discovery of chlorpromazine over 70 years ago and substantial pharmacologic advances, postsynaptic dopamine blockade has dominated the pharmacotherapy of schizophrenia. Current dopamine modulating first-generation and second-generation antipsychotics target mainly positive symptoms, but not/inadequately negative and cognitive symptoms. Additional challenges include non-adherence and adverse effects, especially cardiometabolic dysregulation. This presentation describes and evaluates recently FDA approved agents or those in development that target efficacy and/or tolerability gaps in the management of schizophrenia via one or more mechanisms of action that go beyond postsynaptic dopamine blockade. Newly/recently approved agents include vesicular monoamine transporter-2 inhibitors valbenazine and deutetrabenazine for tardive dyskinesia and, possibly, residual positive symptoms; olanzapine/samidorphan combination, lumateperone, new formulations, including subcutaneous injections, of long-acting injectable antipsychotics, as well as the first muscarinic receptor enhancer, the M1/M4 muscarinic agonist xanomeline plus peripherally restricted anticholinergic trospium. Emerging agents in development that have at least one positive phase 1B, 2 or 3 trial include the trace amine-associated receptor-1 (TAAR1) ulotaront, M4 muscarinic positive allosteric modulator emraclidine, M4 orthosteric agonist NBI-1117568, plus multiple other muscarinic receptor modulators for total psychopathology, the glycine transporter-1 inhibitor Iclepertin and other molecules in development targeting cognitive impairment, as well as evenamide, a voltage-gated sodium channel modulator targeting glutamate signaling for treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Mechanisms of action other than postsynaptic dopamine blockade are urgently needed improve schizophrenia outcomes for total/positive symptoms with reduced adverse effects, as well as for cognitive symptoms, negative symptoms, and treatment resistance, each of which remain areas of great need in schizophrenia.

Learning Objectives:
1. Recognize efficacy and tolerability characteristics and gaps of current postsynaptic antidopaminergic antipsychotic agents.
2. Identify mechanisms of action and efficacy signals of new and emerging molecules beyond postsynaptic dopamine blockade targeting different symptom domains in schizophrenia.
3. Differentiate adverse effect profiles of new and emerging treatments for schizophrenia from agents with postsynaptic dopamine modulation and from each other.

1. Correll CU, Citrome L. Pharmacologic Treatment of Schizophrenia Beyond Dopamine Receptor Blockade-Has Its Time Come Yet? JAMA Psychiatry. 2024 Feb 1;81(2):118-120.
2. Correll CU, Solmi M, Cortese S, Fava M, Højlund M, Kraemer HC, McIntyre RS, Pine DS, Schneider LS, Kane JM. The future of psychopharmacology: a critical appraisal of ongoing phase 2/3 trials, and of some current trends aiming to de-risk trial programmes of novel agents. World Psychiatry. 2023 Feb;22(1):48-74.
3. Correll CU, Abi-Dargham A, Howes O. Emerging Treatments in Schizophrenia. J Clin Psychiatry. 2022 Feb 15;83(1):SU21024IP1.